THE  JEW 


ENGLISH    FICTION 


BY 


RABBI    DAVID   PHILIPSON,    D.D 

AUTHOR  OF  "OLD  EUROPEAN  JEWRIES,"  ETC. 


New  Edition,  Revised  and  Enlarged. 


CINCINNATI 

THE  ROBERT    CLARKE  COMPANY 
1903 


0 

•UNIVER 

OF 


•    '          .'•• 


COPYRIGHT  BY 
ROBERT  CLARKE  &  CO. 

1889. 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

THE  ROBERT  CLARKE  CO. 
1902 


DEDICATED 


TO  THE 

MIEMIORY 

OP 

MY  FIRST  AND  MOST   LOVING  TEACHER, 


165903 


PREFACE  TO  NEW  EDITION. 


Since  the  year  of  the  first  publication  of  this 
study  on  the  Jew  in  English  fiction,  quite  a 
number  of  novels  have  appeared  having  Jews  as 
prominent  characters.  I  need  mention  only 
such  books  as  Hall  Caine's  Scapegoat,  Walter 
Besant's  Rebel  Queen  and  Lew  Wallace's  Prince 
of  India.  The  temptation  was  great  to  include 
studies  of  these  and  other  novels  in  this  new 
edition,  but  many  of  the  statements  and  crit- 
icisms already  made  in  the  chapters  of  this 
work  apply  also  to  these  books,  and,  therefore, 
I  concluded  that  it  would  be  wiser  not  to  dull 
the  pages  by  repetition. 

However,  another  class  of  novels  based  on 
Jewish  life  has  made  its  appearance  in  English 
literature  during  the  past  decade,  viz.,  the  so- 
called  ghetto  stories.  These  are  written  by 
Jews  and  constitute  a  distinct  genre.  It  is 
proper,  aye  even  necessary,  that  these  tales  be 
given  full  and  careful  consideration  in  a  work 
on  the  Jew  in  English  fiction.  Hence  a  lengthy 


IV  PREFACE    TO   NEW   EDITION. 

chapter  has  been  added  whose  theme  is  the  ghetto 
novel. 

The  passing  years  have  brought  with  them 
changes  of  opinion  on  a  number  of  points 
touched  in  these  pages,  and  this  has  necessitated 
a  number  of  revisions.  The  Dickens'  corre- 
spondence, which  is  appended  as  a  note  to  the 
chapter  on  that,  author,  will  prove,  I  am  con- 
vinced, a  welcome  addition. 

CINCINNATI,  April,  1902.  D.  P. 


CONTENTS. 

I.  INTRODUCTORY 5 

II.  MARLOWE'S  "JEW  OF  MALTA" 19 

III.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "MERCHANT  OP  VENICE" 34 

IV.  CUMBERLAND'S  "  THE  JEW  " 54 

V.  SCOTT'S  "!VANHOE" 70 

VI.  DICKENS' s   "OLIVER  TWIST"  AND   "  OUR  MUTUAL 

FRIEND" 88 

VII.  DISRAELI'S  "  CONINGSBY  AND  TANCRED  " 103 

VIII.  GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA,"  1 122 

«  "  "  "  "          ,11 143 

IX.  ZANGWILL'S  "CHILDREN   OP  THE  GHETTO"  AND 

OTHERS...  .  16? 


THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 


I.  INTRODUCTORY. 

As  portrayed  in  English  fiction  from  the  time 
of  Elizabeth  to  our  day, the  Jew  is  almost  Pro- 
tean in  his  character,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
various  guises  he  has  been  made  to  assume,  run- 
ning the  whole  length  from  the  villainy  of  Ba- 
rabbas  to  the  ideal  nobleness  of  Mordecai.  So 
remarkable  a  phenomenon  is  well  worthy  of  in- 
vestigation. The  theme  is  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  demand  earnest,  careful,  and  unpreju- 
diced consideration.  The  influence  of  these 
productions  in  shaping  the  popular  conception 
of  the  Jew  can  not  be  overestimated,  since  the 
fascinating  form  wherein  the  matter  is  presented 
is  particularly  effective  in  leaving  a  deep  and 
lasting  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  reader. 

Where  philosophy,  with  its  investigations  into 
the  cause,  aim,  and  effect  of  existence,  with  its 
far-reaching  inquiries  and  conclusions,  attracts 
but  the  few  eager  and  restless  minds  who  would 
delve  into  the  very  mystery  of  things;  where 
theology,  the  philosophy  of  the  highest,  requires 
a  depth  and  breadth  of  comprehension  far  above 
the  ordinary;  where  positive  science  is  an  ex- 

(5) 


b  THE  JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

acting  mistress,  demanding  that  exclusive  de- 
votion which  only  some  choice  spirits  can  or  are 
willing  to  give;  where  historical  investigation 
expects  that  search  into  past  doings,  customs, 
and  thoughts,  which  can  be  satisfactorily  ac- 
complished only  with  the  greatest  labor  and 
skill;  where  thus  the  pursuit  of  truth  in  any 
branch  demands  the  discipleship  of  a  lifetime 
and  must  be  content  with  the  least  results,  the 
many,  impatient  to  be  amused,  nor  desirous  of 
exerting  the  mind  overmuch,  have  found  in  the 
novel,  "  the  modern  epic,"  as  Fielding  terms  it, 
and  in  the  drama,  the  novel  presented  to  the  eye, 
their  chief  mental  excitement  and  amusement. 
Where  one  will  find  delight  in  any  of  the 
heavier  products  of  thought,  a  thousand  will 
eagerly  quaff  of  the  waters  which  flow  from  the 
fountain-head  of  fiction. 

The  ordinary  reader  is  carried  along,  adopts 
the  conclusions  offered,  has  his  opinions  shaped 
and  modeled  by  the  writer  of  fiction.  How 
many  are  there  whose  whole  knowledge  of  hk- 
tory,  for  example,  has  been  derived  from  this 
source.  There  are  historical^  scientific,  philo- 
sophical, theological,  and  political  novels,  and 
great  is  the  influence  they  exert.  They  are 
mighty  factors  in  modern  culture  and  modern 
life.  Their  power  is  great  for  good  or  for  evil, 
as  their  producers  will.  Of  many  minds  they 
are  the  only  pabulum.  It  is  not  my  object  to 
decry  the  trash  which  passes  to-day  under  the 


I.      INTRODUCTORY.  7 

name  of  fiction,  nor  yet  to  extol  the  many  pro- 
ductions of  true  genius  which,  presenting  the 
phases  of  the  development  of  human  life  in  this 
attractive  form,  have  been  among  the  bene- 
factions of  mankind,  for  is  there  scarcely  one 
who  has  not  been  held  as  by  a  charm  in  the 
power  of  "  the  Wizard  of  the  North,"  or  has  not 
laughed  and  wept  and  pitied  and  grown  indig- 
nant with  Dickens,  or  has  not  marveled  at  the 
biting  scorn  and  sarcasm,  and  been  startled  at 
the  deep  insight  into  human  nature  of  Thacke- 
ray, or  has  not  stood  amazed  at  the  minute  in- 
vestigation of  the  broad,  deep,  philosophical 
mind  of  the  greatest  of  the  female  novelists, 
the  representative  par  excellence  of  psychological 
analysis  in  fiction,  or  has  not  thought  and 
pondered  and  studied,  and  pondered  again  o'er 
the  lines  of  the  myriad-minded  dramatist,  En- 
gland's first  genius,  and  of  the  many  lesser 
lights  that  revolve  about  this  sun. 

To  these  the  greatest  license  is  given ;  they 
touch  upon  any  and  every  subject,  nothing  hu- 
man is  foreign  to  them  ;  none  can  bound  the  do- 
main they  may  enter;  the  world  is  their  field; 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  oiler  material  for 
treatment.  Still  there  are  but  two  evident  in- 
stances that  fiction,  by  offering  a  misrepresen- 
tation, has  inflicted  on  innocent  victims  the 
greatest  harm.  Passion  and  prejudice  readily 
communicate  themselves  from  the  page  to  the 
reader.  Then  ignorance,  too,  has  impressed  its 


8  THE   JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 

seal  on  many  a  work  whose  influence  all  argu- 
ment and  all  proof  have  in  vain  attempted  to 
counteract.  And  that  the  Jew  has  suffered  in  this 
respect  can  not  be  denied.  He  has  heen  a  favor- 
ite character  in  fiction,  treated  with  all  the 
prejudice  and  ill-feeling  which  characterized  the 
sentiments  of  the  multitude,  until  the  appear- 
ance of  Lessing's  "  Die  Juden  "  and  "  Nathan 
der  Weise."  How  he  suffered  from  the  evil  ef- 
fects which  these  works  of  the  imagination 
produced  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
fact:  whenever  in  the  eighteenth  century  Shy- 
lock  was  performed,  the  passions  of  the  multi- 
tude were  excited  to  such  a  pitch  that  it  was 
found  necessary  to  produce,  immediately  there- 
after, "  Nathan  the  Wise,"  that  this  might  act  as 
an  antidote  towards  quieting  the  aroused  pas- 
sions which  might  have  culminated  in  excesses 
involving  great  danger  to  the  unfortunate  Jews. 
Two  questions  present  themselves  for  solution 
in  this  introduction :  First.  Was  and  is  it  le- 
gitimate to  introduce  the  Jew  into  works  of 
fiction?  And,  secondly,  if  so,  to  what  extent 
can  this  be  carried  ?  Before  answering  the  first 
question  a  few  remarks  will  be  necessary.  Fic- 
tion is  a  compound  of  truth  and  imagination ; 
its  lasting  power  lies  in  the  correct  blending  of 
these  two  factors.  Exaggeration  makes  it  bi- 
zarre and  grotesque.  Discerning  minds  will 
readily  discover  its  weakness  and  its  strength, 
and,  according  to  the  predominance  of  either, 


I.    INTRODUCTORY.  9 

it  will  stand  among  the  imperishable  works  of 
genius  or  disappear  among  the  fleeting  pro- 
ductions of  the  moment.  Now,  the  truths 
which  it  lies  within  the  province  of  the  writer 
of  fiction  to  touch,  belong  either  to  the  inner 
world  of  human  thought  and  emotion,  the  elab- 
oration and  development  of  which,  in  character, 
forms  what  we  may  term  the  analytical,  psycho- 
logical novel,  or,  if  the  novelist  or  the  dramatist 
wishes  to  treat  of  external  life — that  is  of  real 
life,  and  desires  to  present  his  tale  as  containing 
elements  thereof — he  will  portray  probably  such 
characters  and  scenes  as  possess  something 
striking  and  different  from  that  to  which 
his  readers  are  accustomed,  and  which  can  give 
a  tangible  hold  to  imaginative  descriptions  and 
events.  This  is  what  gives  Scott  his  great  and 
undying  power;  his  Scotch  descriptions  and 
scenes  came  as  a  revelation  to  the  reading  world. 
They  contain  the  element  of  truth  and  are  drawn 
by  a  master  hand.  That  is  why  Auerbach's 
Dorfgeschichten  met  with  so  generous  a  recep- 
tion, because  they  dealt  with  scenes  that  had 
peculiarities  sufficient  to  give  them  separate 
treatment. 

Therefore,  too,  the  modern  Russian,  Swedish, 
and  Norwegian  works  and  tales  attract  so  many 
intelligent  readers,  because  competent  minds 
have  grasped  upon  that  which  is  peculiar,  and 
blending  this  truth  with  their  imagination's 
fancies,  produce  these  works,  if  not  of  genius, 


10  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

at  least  of  great  worth  in  enabling  us  to  under- 
stand the  lives  and  incidents  they  portray. 

Does  Jewish  life  present  these  peculiar  fea- 
tures, or  any  peculiar  features  which  make  it 
proper  material  for  the  novelist,  so  that  the  Jew, 
being  introduced  into  the  work  of  fiction,  may 
be  a  truthful  picture,  and  not  a  caricature?  This 
question  we  ask  regarding  Jewish  life,  as  not 
included  in  the  Jewish  religion ;  this  point  will 
be  touched  further  on.  Here,  in  the  portrayal 
of  Jewish  life,  it  is  that  we  must  distinguish 
between  past  and  present.  We  will  not  for  a 
moment  deny  that  in  the  past,  and  in  those  in- 
stances of  the  present  which  strictly  follow  the 
traditional  lines  set  by  the  past — in  the  so-called 
ghettos  or  Jewries  of  the  world,  voluntary  or 
enforced — the  Jew,  as  a  man,  apart  from  the  Jew 
in  religion,  was  and  is  a  legitimate  character  to 
be  Introduced  into  fiction.  His  strict  exclusive- 
ness,  his  many  peculiar  habits,  his  (to  the  com- 
munity) inexplicable  customs,  marked  him  off, 
as  belonging  to  a  nationality  with  peculiarities 
all  its  own.  As,  inclosed  within  the  Ghetto  he 
was  cut  off  from  all  communication,  except  such 
as  occasional  business  transactions  required,  so 
was  he  seemingly  devoid  of  all  sympathy  with 
his  surroundings.  He  had  a  national  ideal; 
he  regarded  his  present  residence  merely  as  a 
resting  place  in  exile  from  the  Holy  Land.  In 
many  instances,  he  wore  a  costume  by  which  he 
was  distinguished.  In  short,  his  appearance, 


I.     INTRODUCTORY,  11 

habits,  customs,  desires,  inclinations,  longings, 
hopes,  were  different  from  those  of  his  neigh- 
bors. All  things  conspired  to  keep  him  thus ; 
he  was  oppressed,  jeered  at — the  butt  of  ridicule 
and  cruelty.  A  character  so  strange,  so  readily 
distinguishable,  with  manners  and  habits  so 
marked,  became,  as  may  be  expected,  popular 
with  writers  and  authors ;  especially  as  by  ex- 
aggeration and  falsification  they  could  delight 
and  please  their  hearers  and  readers.  Had  the 
writers  of  these  mediaeval  and  later  tales  kept 
within  the  bounds  of  truth  and  reason,  none 
could  object  to  their  introducing  the  Jew  into 
their  works.  There  are  tales  of  this  very  Jewish 
life,  portraying  the  peculiarities  and  strange- 
nesses of  the  Ghetto-existence,  giving  pictures 
of  every  phase  and  every  custom  of  this  life, 
which  are  truly  delightful  and  instructive  read- 
ing. They  were  inspired,  however,  by  friend- 
ship, or,  at  least,  by  impartiality,  instead  of  by 
ignorance,  hatred,  and  malice.  The  ghetto 
stories,  sketches  and  tales  of  Kompert,  Franzos, 
Sacher-Masoch,  Bernstein,  and  Kohn,  as  tales 
of  the  past,  although  containing  so  much  that 
is  strange  and  idiosyncratic,  we  feel  to  be  per- 
fectly proper,  although  they  are  often  concerned 
with  non-religious  doings ;  and  why  ?  Because 
they  portray  what  was  once  a  true  state  of 
affairs.  Even  should  they  contain  passages  un- 
favorable to  the  Jews,  such  as  some  chapters  of 
Auerbach's  Spinoza,  which  tell  of  bigotry  and 


12  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

intolerance,  yet,  knowing  them  to  be  true,  none 
can  object;  none  who  would  have  the  virtues 
appear  would  attempt  to  veil  the  failings  and 
the  errors. 

This  was ;  it  belongs  to  history ;  and  the  fic- 
tion that  takes  it  as  its  theme  is  in  reality 
historical  fiction.  Now,  however,  when  the  Jew 
has  laid  off  all  these  peculiar  customs ;  when  he 
has  stepped  out  of  the  Ghetto  into  the  free  light 
and  air;  when  he  has  dropped  his  traditional 
distinguishing  marks;  when  he  in  all  has  be- 
come like  his  neighbor — thinking  like  thoughts, 
indulging  the  same  ideals,  no  longer  a  stranger 
in  a  strange  land,  nor  looking  upon  his  habita- 
tion as  temporary,  but  filled  with  patriotic  feel- 
ing for  the  welfare  of  whatever  country  he  may 
inhabit;  when,  in  all  but  religion,  he  is  like 
unto  all — every  representation  of  the  modern 
Jew,  except  in  the  religious  light,  in  novel  or  in 
drama,  in  play  or  in  tale,  is  a  mark  of  gross  ig- 
norance, and,  through  ignorance,  of  gross  evil 
and  injustice.  The  prejudices  of  an  early  day 
have  not  yet  died  out,  and  this,  coupled  with 
the  dense  ignorance  characterizing  otherwise 
cultured  people  regarding  Jews  and  Judaism, 
give  these  latter-day  productions  a  truly  perni- 
cious power.  From  them  many  obtain  their  only 
knowledge  of  the  Jews.  The  old  thought  of 
peculiarity  and  isolation  is  revived,  if  it  ever  had 
disappeared.  Many  who  derive  their  knowledge 
from  this  literature  never  come  into  contact 


I.     INTRODUCTORY.  13r 

with,  the  misrepresented  character ;  and  if  they 
should,  and  would  find  him  or  her  different 
from  the  presentation,  they  would  not  regard 
the  portrayal  incorrect,  but  only  look  upon 
their  new  acquaintance  as  a  rara  avis — a  dif- 
ferent somebody  from  the  usual  class ;  for  had 
they  not  been  informed  by  their  author  that  the 
Jews  speak  differently,  that  they  act  differently, 
than  their  Christian  neighbors  ? 

All  such  works  written  and  published  add  but 
another  layer  to  the  dividing  line  already  exist- 
ing. They  are  unjust  to  the  Jew ;  they  are  but 
new  antagonistic  elements  with  which  he  is 
forced  to  combat.  Even  if  written  without  pre- 
judicial intent,  they  contain  the  insidious  seed 
which  sinks  deeply  and  produces  poisonous  and 
noxious  weeds.  An  author  has  a  superficial 
acquaintance,  we  will  say,  with  some  Jews ;  he 
has  picked  up,  here  and  there,  some  Hebrew 
phrases ;  he  has  noted  a  few  distinguishing  cus- 
toms among  some  classes  of  Jews ;  he  has  also 
met  with  some  loud,  uncultured  characters 
among  them.  Without  any  knowledge  of  true 
Judaism  whatsoever,  he  will  now  set  himself  up 
as  a  teacher,  to  inform,  through  the  pages 
of  a  novel,  the  general  public  what  the  Jews 
are,  how  they  live,  how  they  act,  how  they 
speak.  He  commits  an  injustice  of  the  greatest 
character;  he  makes  them  speak  a  frightful 
jargon;  he  does  more  to  increase  the  already 
existing  prejudice  than  many  a  better  book  can 


14  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    JbTCTION. 

undo;  he  gives  them  sentiments  which  are  a 
disgrace  to  honest  men ;  he  at  times  tries  to 
glaze  over  things  by  a  kind  word,  or  a  pat  on 
the  back,  as  it  were,  but  this  is  only  the  treach- 
erous device  that  strengthens  the  wrong  view 
presented.  "No  worse  enemy  of  the  Jews  exists ; 
these  novels  are  hidden  thrusts  ;  they  are  in 
truth  as  pernicious  in  their  tendency  as  any 
anti-Semitic  sheet  ever  published;  they  rest 
on  a  little  superficial  knowledge ;  they  present, 
not  the  Jew,  but  a  caricature ;  they  introduce  to 
us  some  coarse,  loud  individuals  as  Jews,  and 
hence,  as  will  be  inferred  from  this,  as  types ; 
they  strengthen  that  widely  prevalent  notion 
of  a  peculiar  people,  and  are  to  be  denounced  as 
falsities,  as  misrepresentations,  as  calumnies. 

Because  there  are  some  vulgar,  uncultured 
people  among  the  Jews,  is  this  a  reason  that 
such  are  to  be  specially  represented  as  Jews? 
Because  some  Jews  have  grown  suddenly  rich, 
and  are  loudly  ostentatious,  is  this  a  cause  that 
the  flagrant  injustice  be  done,  that  they,  with 
these  characteristics,  be  held  up  by  the  name  of 
their  religion  ?  JT  is  time  that  this  should 
cease ;  ?t  is  time  that  those  maligned  and  slan- 
dered should  speak  their  word  and  counteract 
this  dangerous  and  insidious  influence ;  't  is  time 
at  last  that  Jews  altogether  be  not  characterized 
and  represented  by  the  few  who  are  what  they 
are,  not  as  Jews,  but  as  men.  Any  man,  be  he 
Jew  or  Christian,  Mohammedan  or  heathen,  who 


I.     INTRODUCTORY.  15 

has  been  bred  in  ignorance,  and  has  suddenly 
acquired  a  fortune,  will  be  shoddy,  for  thus  he 
thinks  to  air  his  importance,  as  his  money  is  the 
only  claim  he  has  thereto,  will  be  vulgar  and 
loud,  and  generally  unpleasant  to  cultured  peo- 
ple; but  his  religion  has  nought  to  do  there- 
with. That  is  the  trait  in  human  nature  which 
makes  the  parvenu,  who  has  been  a  favorite 
character  for  ridicule  from  ancient  days  to  our 
time,  made  typical  by  Moliere's  famous  presen- 
tation of  Jourdain  in  "Le  Bourgeois  Gentil- 
homme."  But  Moliere  speaks  not  of  his  par- 
venu's religion ;  he  presents  him  as  a  type,  that 
can  be  met  with  every  day.  How  would  not  a 
book  be  decried,  or  else  considered  beneath 
notice,  that  would  introduce  an  Episcopalian,  or 
a  Methodist,  or  a  Presbyterian,  as  the  represent- 
ative of  shoddyism,  of  vulgarity,  of  loudness ! 
We  can  readily  imagine  what  a  reception  such 
a  work  would  receive.  The  author  would  be 
ridiculed,  the  statements  made  be  denounced  as 
false,  or  it  might  become  a  curiosity  illustra- 
tive of  the  strange  perversion  of  a  mind  that 
could  couple  Christianity  with  qualities  with 
which  that  religion,  as  well  as  no  other,  has  any 
thing  to  do.  And  yet  there  is  as  much  shod- 
dyism among  all  those  classes  as  among  the 
Jews ;  as  much  glitter  and  tinsel,  as  much  par- 
venuism  and  loudness. 

Culture  takes  time.     The  children  of  the  up- 
gtart  will  be  more  cultured  and  refined  than  he  ; 


16  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION". 

his  grandchildren  still  more  so.  Among  us 
surely,  in  this  land,  there  is  no  cause  for  any 
casting  of  stones ;  for  the  great  and  small  for- 
tunes have  been  acquired  only  comparatively 
lately,  and  the  earliest  ancestor  of  families 
which  make  even  the  greatest  pretensions  to 
culture  is  a  very  small  distance  of  time  off, 
when  compared  with  that  length  of  years  back 
when  the  ancestors  of  the  Jews,  with  the 
Greeks,  comprised  the  culture  of  the  world.  In 
discussing  any  of  these  books,  it  is  not  apposite 
to  adduce  the  fact  that  we  all  enjoy  the  broad 
humor  and  strange  characteristics  of  the  Irish, 
as  presented  in  works  of  fiction;  that  Hugo 
portrays  the  French  character  in  its  distinctive- 
ness;  that  Stinde  seizes  upon  the  peculiarities  of 
Berlin  life;  that  Howells  sets  forth  the  traits  of 
American  society — all  this  means  something 
different — those  are  national  peculiarities,  which 
characterize  only  those  depicted  ;  but  the  quali- 
ties attributed  to  the  Jew  in  these  works  are 
such  as  can  belong  to  any  man.  Further, 
it  is  neither  legitimate  nor  truthful  to  treat  the 
Jews  as  nationalities  are  treated.  There  are  no 
Jewish  national  traits;  as  Englishmen,  they  have 
the  qualities  of  Englishmen,  and  so  with  every 
nation  among  whom  they  may  dwell.  The  Jew- 
ish nation  ceased  to  exist  over  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago ;  for  centuries  the  Jews  were  a  people 
without  a  country  owing  to  the  hostility  of 
Christian  legislation,  but  since  the  close  of  the 


I.     INTRODUCTORY.  17 

eighteenth  century  when  the  American  Republic 
was  born  and  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in 
European  lands  began,  they  have  been  admitted 
gradually  to  citizenship  among  the  various 
western  nations  of  Europe  and  incorporated  into 
the  national  life.  But  the  world  has  not  yet 
learned  this  lesson  completely.  Unfortunately? 
the  doctrine  must  still  be  preached  that  Jews 
are  to  be  contrasted  with  Christians,  not  with 
Englishmen,  Germans,  or  Americans. 

Following  this  line  of  thought,  there  is  but 
one  manner  in  which  the  modern  Jew  can  be 
truthfully  represented  in  fiction,  and  that  is 
as  the  follower  and  confessor  of  his  religion  ; 
and  this  only  by  such  as  have  made  a  long 
and  exhaustive  study  of  the  same.  Whether  the 
presentation  offered  be  true  or  false,  favorable  or 
unfavorable,  is  another  question ;  but  as  long  as 
the  fictionist  keeps  within  these  lines,  he  is  at  least 
faithful  unto  the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  the 
Jews  themselves  in  this  respect.  Then  it  be- 
comes the  province  of  the  critic  to  determine 
whether  the  writer  has  given  a  true  statement 
of  the  religious  acts  and  customs  or  not.  As 
George  Eliot,  with  perfect  propriety,  introduced 
into  her  earlier  tales  the  Dissenters,  and  gave  a 
vivid  picture  of  their  religious  manners,  habits, 
and  customs ;  as  Scott  portrays  the  Scotch  Cov- 
enanters, with  all  their  fire,  their  obstinacy, 
their  dogged  determination,  and  their  habit  of 
introducing  religious  discussions  at  all  times,  so 


18  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

that  Mause  Headrigg,  for  example,  has  become 
a  character  fixed  and  typical;  as  Hawthorne 
now  and  then  discourses  on  the  religious  cus- 
toms of  the  New  England  Puritatis ;  so,  too, 
and  so  only,  are  the  Jew  and  the  Jewish  religion 
to  be  employed  for  fiction's  purposes,  if  they  are 
to  be  employed  at  all,  in  novels  and  plays  rep- 
resenting modern  life.  One  great  novelist  of 
our  days  alone  has  done  this,  the  writer  of 
"  Daniel  Deronda ;"  if  correct  or  not  in  her  pre- 
sentation, is  a  question  to  be  discussed  later  on. 
The  name  Jew  is  the  proud  cognomen  of  the 
confessors  of  that  parent  religion,  through 
whose  medium  the  truth  of  the  one  God  was 
divulged  to  the  world.  However,  ere  they  are 
Jews  they  are  men.  As  Jews,  they  stand  a  dis- 
tinctive religious  community ;  as  men,  they  are 
as  their  neighbors,  one  with  them  in  all  else. 
If  they  are  to  be  distinguished  from  them,  it  is 
only  in  this ;  in  all  else  there  is  nothing  peculiar. 
Every  representation  as  aught  else  is  false. 
Christian  and  Jew  are  lost  in  that  wider  rela- 
tionship of  man,  as  Lessing's  Nathan  so  well 
says  to  the  Templar :  "Are  Christian  and  Jew 
such  before  they  are  men  ?  Oh !  would  that  I 
had  found  in  you  one  whom  it  sufficed  to  be 
called  man ! " 


n.  MAKLOWE'S  "JEW  OF  MALTA."  19 


II.   MARLOWE'S  "JEW  OF  MALTA." 

In  the  works  of  fiction,  both  dramas  and 
novels,  whereof  I  shall  treat,  it  is  not  my 
purpose  to  go  into  an  exhaustive  criticism  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  this  is  necessary  for  a  full  ex- 
position of  the  Jewish  portions.  In  regard  to 
these  I  shall  aim  to  point  out  in  how  far  the  pre- 
sentation is  correct,  where  the  writer  was  actu- 
ated by  prejudice,  and  where  the  Jewish  charac- 
ter has  been  misunderstood  either  for  good  or  for 
ill.  I  shall  include  only  the  productions  of 
such  authors  as  have  gained  eminence  in  the 
world  of  letters,  for  their  names  lend  a  charm 
and  an  influence  to  their  writings  which  those 
of  less  note  could  not  and  can  not  hope  to  at- 
tain. The  first  work  in  point  of  time  (we  shall 
be  guided  by  the  dates  of  the  appearance  of  the 
various  works)  is  the  "  Jew  of  Malta,"  by  Chris- 
topher Marlowe,  of  whose  "  mighty  line,"  Ben 
Jonson  speaks  with  admiration.  This  play, 
with  the  atrocious  character  of  Barabbas,  the 
most  villainous,  perhaps,  on  the  English  stage, 
gives  us  an  excellent  opportunity  to  judge  of 
the  opinion  in  which  the  Jews  were  held,  for 
Barabbas  is  meant  to  be  representative,  and  the 
play  was  exceedingly  well  received  by  the  popu- 
lace. 


20  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

It  must  have  been  written,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  after  the  year  1588,  since  in  the 
prologue  occur  the  words,  "  now  that  the  Guise 
is  dead,"  referring  to  the  assassination  of  the 
third  duke  of  Guise,  in  1588.  Whether  the  con- 
ception of  the  character  was  original  with  Mar- 
lowe or  not,  we  can  not  determine;  its  plot,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  plays  of  most  of  the 
English  dramatists  of  that  period,  may  have 
been  borrowed  from  some  tale  of  which  all 
traces  are  lost.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
owing  to  its  unrelieved  cruelty,  it  may  have  had 
its  source  in  some  Spanish  novel,  but  the  Span- 
iards felt  no  more  prejudiced  toward  the  Jews 
than  did  any  other  nation ;  the  hatred  was  the 
same  throughout  Christian  Europe.  One  por- 
tion of  the  play,  namely,  that  in  which  the  heir 
to  the  throne  of  Turkey  confers  the  great  honor 
on  the  Jew  of  making  him  Governor  of  Malta, 
may  have  been  suggested  by  the  following  cir- 
cumstance, rumors  of  which  may  have  reached 
England,  and  which,  without  exact  knowledge, 
the  poet  may  have  perverted  and  used  for  his 
play.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  some  years  be- 
fore the  composition  of  this  drama,  a  Jew,  Jo- 
seph Nassi,  had  played  a  great  r6le  at  the  Turk- 
ish court,  and  had  been  a  favorite  of  the  Sultan 
Soliman,  but  still  more  had  the  Crown  Prince 
Selim  (note  the  name  of  the  Prince  Selim  Caly- 
math)  been  attached  to  him.  This  Jew  frus- 
trated the  designs  of  France  against  Turkey, 


ii.   MARLOWE'S  "JEW  OF  MALTA."  21 

brought  Venice  to  terms,  inasmucli  as  it  was 
through,  his  agency  and  advice  that  the  Turks  at- 
tacked and  captured  the  Isle  of  Cyprus  from  Yen- 
ice,  and  for  his  fidelity  and  his  services  he  w?s 
named  by  the  Sultan,  Duke  of  RTaxos  and  ruler 
of  the  Cyclades.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the 
story  of  the  remarkable  career  of  this  Joseph 
Nassi  became  known,  and,  being  interpreted  ac- 
cording to  the  general  conception  held  of  the 
Jews,  it  was  concluded  that  he  could  have  risen 
to  this  eminence  only  by  means  of  deception  and 
extreme  wickedness;  by  this  distortion  of  the 
true  facts  the  play  may  have  a  thread  of  an  his- 
torical foundation,  viz  :  that  one  fact,  that  a  Jew 
was  made  governor  of  an  island  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  Turks.  But  apart  from 
this,  which  is  at  best  but  a  mere  conjecture,  the 
drama  lacks  all  probability,  both  in  history  and 
in  fact,  as  far  as  the  Jewish  portions  are  con- 
cerned. In  history,  because  at  the  time  that 
the  play  was  written  there  were  no  Jews  in 
Malta,  and  if  there  were  they  were  so  in  secret, 
while  here  they  are  represented  as  possessing 
wealth  and  power  and  as  professing  their  re- 
ligion openly.  As  they  were  expelled  from 
Spain  in  1492,  so  were  they  driven  from  all  the 
lands  over  which  Spain  exerted  any  power  or 
influence,  such  as  Sicily  and  other  islands  of  the 
Mediterranean,  among  them  Malta  (vide  Zunz 
Zur  Geschichte  und  Literatur,508,  528),  and  they 
did  not  return  to  these  localities  until  they  were 


22  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

earnestly  solicited  to  do  so,  with  the  promise 
that  they  would  not  be  disturbed  or  maltreated, 
the  return  taking  place  in  the  year  1728.  The 
title  is,  therefore,  unfortunate,  but  this  may  be 
only  a  minor  point ;  it  is,  at  best,  not  meant  to 
be  a  presentation  of  what  was  thought  of  the 
Jews  in  Malta  but  in  England.  It  has  been 
stated  frequently  that  neither  Marlowe  nor 
Shakespeare  is  to  blame  for  the  characters  they 
present,  as  there  were  no  Jews  in  England  at 
the  time,  they  having  been  expelled  by  Edward 
I.,  in  1291,  and  not  permitted  to  reside  there 
until  the  year  1656 ;  that  the  Jewish  charac- 
ters of  these  poets  were  but  what  they  learned 
from  hearsay,  or  from  the  perusal  of  foreign 
works,  and,  therefore,  they  personally  harbored 
no  ill-will;  but  it  has  been  conclusively  shown 
of  late  that  there  were  Jews  in  England  during 
that  period  (see  Lucien  Wolfs  Menasseh  ben 
Israel,  Introduct.  XIV).  The  dramatist,  with  his 
strong  love  for  intensity,  which  he  shows  in  all 
his  chief  characters,  saw,  in  the  generally  ac- 
credited reputation  of  the  Jews  as  usurers,  an 
opportunity  of  satisfying  his  own  love  of  exag- 
geration and  the  prejudices  of  the  rabble.  "  The 
overloaded  sensational  atrocities  of  the  Jews  oi 
Malta,"  are  so  marked  that  nought  but  the  blind- 
est prejudice  could  have  prevented  any  one  from 
at  once  seeing  that  even  the  most  debased  of  hu- 
man kind  could  not  have  perpetrated  them. 
Such  was  the  ideal  Jew  of  popular  ignorance 


ii.   MARLOWE'S  "JEW  OF  MALTA."  23 

and  intolerance,  at  a  time  when  these  unfortu- 
nates were  looked  upon  as  a  "whetstone 
to  keep  one's  Christianity  sharp  upon,"  and 
to  these  passions  of  the  multitude  Marlowe 
truckled,  making  of  Barahhas  "  a  mere  monster 
exulting  in  crime,  for  its  own  sake,  in  the  most 
impossible  way."  It  seems  to  me  that  even  the 
name  Barahbas  was  chosen  with  a  purpose ;  for 
that  name  recalled  to  the  Christian  populace  the 
thief  in  whose  stead  Christ  was  crucified,  and 
would  he  more  apt  than  any  other,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Judas  Iscariot,  to  arouse 
the  wrath  of  the  masses,  if  such  arousal  were 
necessary.  The  play  itself  is  one  long  recital 
of  the  wickedness  and  the  monstrosities  of  the 
Jew ;  it  abounds  in  preposterous  and  ridiculous 
assertions.  The  first  two  acts  are  quite  strong, 
the  last  three  form  a  string  of  impossibilities 
even  more  absurd  than  those  which  the  first 
part  of  the  play  contains.  There  are  a  few  in- 
stances wherein  the  dramatist  strikes  a  true  note 
in  Jewish  life  and  Jewish  character,  a  very  few, 
and  these  we  will  discuss  first.  In  his  opening 
speech,  Barabbas  says : 

"  And  thus  methinks  should  men  of  judgment  frame 
Their  means  of  traffic  from  the  vulgar  trade, 
And  as  their  wealth  increaseth,  so  inclose 
Infinite  riches  in  little  room. — (ACT  I,  Sc.  I.) 

This  represents,  in  truth,  the  Jewish  policy  in 
those  ages  of  persecution.     At  any  moment,,  at; 


24  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

the  caprice  of  the  king  they  might  he  expelled, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  demagogue  they  might 
be  attacked  or  mobbed,  and  hence  it  was  ex- 
ceedingly necessary  that  they  should  have  their 
wealth,  their  only  source  of  power  and  the  only 
reason  wherefore  they  were  at  all  tolerated,  in 
as  small  a  compass  as  possible,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  carry  it  with  them  to  distant  lands,  to  be 
driven  to  which  was  so  often  their  fate  in  those 
dark  days. 

Another  glimpse  of  truth  we  have,  and  this 
is  one  of  the  bright  spots  in  the  early  parts  of 
the  play,  in  the  wondrous  love  Barabbas  is  made 
to  feel  for  his  daughter  Abigail — 

"I  have  no  charge  nor  many  children, 
But  one  sole  daughter  whom  I  hold  as  dear 
As  Agamemnon  did  his  Iphigen 
And  all  I  have  is  hers."— (ACT  I,  Sc.  I.) 

And  further  on — 

"  So  they  spare  me,  my  daughter,  and  my  wealth !" 

—(IBID.) 

And  again,  when  the  great  loss  has  come  upon 
him,  and  his  riches  are  to  be  taken  from  him : 

11  But  whither  wends  my  beauteous  Abigail  ? 
Oh !  what  has  made  my  lovely  daughter  sad  ? 
What,  woman !  moan  not  for  a  little  loss. 
Thy  father  hath  enough  in  store  for  thee." 


n.   MARLOWE'S  "  JEW  OF  MALTA."  25 

And  in  taking  leave  of  her,  he  says : 

"Farewell,  my  joy;  and  by  my  fingers  take 
A  kiss  from  him  that  sends  it  from  his  soul." 

—(ACT  II,  Sc.  I.) 

All  writers  seem  to  recognize  this  love  of  the 
Jew  for  his  own ;  and  although  Barabbas  later 
disowns  and  curses  his  child,  when  she  turns 
apostate,  still  is  this  love,  as  thus  set  forth  in 
the  first  part  of  the  drama,  the  only  redeeming 
quality  in  the  wretched  character.  !N"o  Jew 
ever  employed  his  child  for  the  purposes  that 
Barabbas  is  made  to  employ  Abigail,  to  be  a  go- 
between,  to  pretend  to  be  desirous  of  entering 
the  convent,  to  become  a  party  to  wrong-doing. 
The  pure,  innocent  girl,  the  ideal  of  Jewish 
home  life,  was  guarded  as  the  apple  of  the  eye 
by  the  parents  until  she  was  given  into  the  safe- 
keeping of  the  husband.  If  there  is  one  aspect 
of  the  Jewish  life  that  kept  itself  pure,  it  is  the 
home  life;  and  to  represent  the  Jew,  as  this 
play  does,  as  giving  such  counsel  to  his  daugh- 
ter, is  preposterous. 

Another  true  word  Barabbas  is  made  to  utter ; 
had  it  been  observed  by  the  dramatist  himself, 
he  would  not  have  drawn  the  Jew  as  he  did, 
when  it  was  only  too  palpable  that  the  populace 
would  readily  regard  it  as  a  faithful  picture  of 
the  Jews  in  general. 

In  Scene  II,  Act  I,  he  says : 

"  Some  Jews  are  wicked  as  some  Christians  are ; 
But  say  the  tribe  that  I  descended  of 


26  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

Were  all  in  general  cast  away  for  sin, 
Shall  I  be  tried  for  their  transgression? 
The  man  that  dealeth  righteously  shall  live." 

Never  was  a  truer  word  spoken ;  every  Jew 
has  been  made  responsible  for  the  acts  of  every 
other  Jew.  It  is  so  with  all  small  and  perse- 
cuted bodies,  as  happened,  for  example,  in  the 
case  of  the  early  Christians  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, and  of  the  Quakers  in  England.  Every 
pretext  is  seized  upon  to  oppress,  and  the  wicked 
actions  of  one,  no  matter  how  virtuous  or  right- 
eous the  remainder,  are  cited  as  characteristic 
of  all;  and  no  community  has  had  to  suffer 
more  from  this  than  the  Jews.  "  The  man  that 
dealeth  righteously  shall  live,"  no  matter  to 
what  race,  nation,  faith,  or  party  he  may  belong. 

The  motif  of  the  play  is  the  usury  of  the  prin- 
cipal character.  Marlowe  wishes  to  develop  the 
character  of  the  usurer,  to  show  to  what  lengths 
his  passion  for  money  can  drive  him ;  and  in  giv- 
ing this  quality  to  the  Jew,  he  makes  it,  together 
with  the  hatred  borne  toward  the  Christians,  the 
fundamental  cause  of  all  the  worst  crimes  that 
the  most  depraved  of  natures  can  carry  into 
execution.  This  motif  is  plainly  stated  in  the 
prologue,  when  Machiavel,  who  is  introduced 
fc '  the  purpose  of  reciting  the  prologue,  says : 

"I  come  not,  I, 

To  read  a  lecture  here  in  Britain, 
But  to  present  the  tragedy  of  a  Jew, 


ii.  MARLOWE'S  "  JEW  OF  MALTA."  27 

Who  smiles  to  see  how  full  his  bags  are  crammed, 
Which  money  was  not  got  without  my  means." 

And  when  Bar  abbas  attempts  to  justify  him- 
self in  the  words  cited  above,  he  is  answered  by 
the  Governor : 

"  Excess  of  wealth  is  cause  of  covetousness, 
And  covetousness,  oh  !  'tis  a  monstrous  sin." 

—(ACT  I,  Sc.  II.) 

Throughout  the  play  we  are  given  to  under- 
stand that  Barabbas  was  a  great  usurer,  and 
through  this  that  it  was  a  general  characteristic 
of  the  Jews.  That  usury  is  a  great  crime,  none 
will  deny ;  all  moral  codes  denounce  the  prac- 
tice, and  rightly  the  usurer  is  looked  down  upon 
as  among  the  lowest  of  mankind.  That  in  the 
times  to  which  this  play  refers  and  in  which  it 
was  written,  many  Jews  followed  this  occupa- 
tion, can  neither  be  denied,  nor  will  I  now  offer 
the  excuses  that  all  other  avenues  were  closed 
to  them,  that  if  they  did  not  charge  a  high 
rate  of  interest,  they  would  receive  nothing,  for 
whenever  they  lent  out  their  money,  it  was  at  a 
great  risk,  owing  to  the  uncertainty  whether  they 
would  ever  receive  it  again.  To  the  following 
fact,  however,  not  generally  known,  it  may  be 
well  to  call  attention.  It  was  not  the  Jews  only 
who  practiced  usury  in  those  lawless,  troubled 
times,  and  what  is  more,  usurious  as  they  were, 
they  were  not  as  hard  nor  as  grinding  as  were  the 
Christians,  who  could  and  who  did  pursue  the 
same  occupation  ,  for,  when  by  law  it  was  for- 


28  THE   JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

bidden  the  Jews  in  France  to  exact  usury,  the 
populace  demanded  and  the  nobles  advised  that 
the  law  be  repealed,  for  the  Christian  usurers,  to 
whom  they  were  now  compelled  to  resort,  were 
so  exorbitant  and  outrageous  in  their  demands 
that  the  Jews  were  kind  indeed  in  comparison. 
In  deference  to  the  popular  cry  the  decree  was 
repealed. 

Bernhard  of  Clairvaux,  as  early  as  the  twelfth 
century,  tells  us  that  the  Christian  usurers,  who, 
as  he  says,  should  really  not  be  called  Chris- 
tians, were  in  their  practices  much  worse  and 
more  exacting  than  the  Jews.  Popular  poets  in 
their  songs  refer  to  this  terrible  vice  as  common 
among  the  Christians.  Brother  Berthold,  in 
one  of  his  sermons,  addresses  his  hearers :  "  Ye 
miserly,  avaricious  usurers,  how  will  you  an- 
swer at  the  last  judgment  the  accusations  of 
these  poor  creatures,  whom  you  are  robbing, 
and  who  will  appear  against  you?"  And  many 
another  voice  of  witnesses  then  living  could  be 
cited  in  proof  of  the  statement  that  this  abom- 
ination was  practiced  by  many  others  besides 
the  Jews.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  again 
refer  to  this  fact  in  a  later  criticism.  Wrong  is 
it,  therefore,  to  make  this  a  Jewish  character- 
istic, as  it  is  considered;  practiced  it  was  by 
some  Jews,  but  Jewish  it  is  not. 

Judge,  now,  from  the  following,  what  was  the 
purpose  of  the  author,  whether  lie  did  not  per- 
mit his  desire  to  exaggerate,  coupled  with  the 


n.   MARLOWE'S  "  JEW  OF  MALTA."  29 

popular  opinion  of  the  Jew  and  his  wish  to 
subserve  this  popular  opinion,  to  run  away  with 
him,  and  produce,  not  a  man,  but  a  monster 
delighting  in  wickedness  for  its  own  sake. 
First,  a  characterization  of  the  Jews,  and  then 
Barabbas's  description  of  himself: 

"  We  Jews  can  fawn  like  spaniels  when  we  please, 
And  when  we  grin  we  bite;   yet  are  our  looks 
As  innocent  and  harmless  as  a  lamb's. 
I  learned  in  Florence  how  to  kiss  my  hand, 
Heave  up  my  shoulders  when  they  call  me  dog, 
And  duck  as  low  as  any  barefoot  friar ; 
Hoping  to  see  them  starve  upon  a  stall, 
Or  else  be  gathered  for  in  the  synagogue, 
That  when  the  offering  basin  comes  to  me 
Even  for  charity,  I  may  spit  into  't." 

—(ACT  II,  Sc.  III.) 

What  a  summing-up!  the  lowest,  the  vilest 
qualities  are  here  enumerated :  sycophancy,  hy- 
pocrisy, cruelty,  hard-heartedness,  revenge  !  No 
wonder  that  a  populace,  ignorant,  unthinking, 
superstitious,  should  be  goaded  on  to  all  ex- 
cesses imaginable,  when  they  heard  such  words 
as  these.  The  Jews  were  seen  only  in  such  pic- 
tures ;  it  was  the  same  spirit  that  produced 
works  like  those  of  Eisenmenger,  Pfefferkorn, 
et  hoc  genus  om.ne — the  spirit  of  hatred  and  pre- 
judice, or  of  religious  bigotry  and  fanaticism. 

Add  to  the  effect  of  such  lines  these  which 
occur  a  little  further  on,  and  it  will  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  imagine  all  the  venom  they  were  pro- 


30  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 

ductive   of.     Says   the   Jew,  in   answer  to  his 
daughter : 

11  It's  no  sin  to  deceive  a  Christian, 
For  they  themselves  hold  the  principle, 
Faith  is  not  to  be  held  with  heretics, 
For  all  are  heretics  that  are  not  Jews. 
This  follows  well,  and  therefore,  daughter,  fear  not." 

—(ACT  II,  Sc.  III.) 

If  ever  doctrine  was  un-  Jewish,  this  is.  With 
all  the  provocation  they  received,  and  which 
would  have  made  a  retaliation  on  their  op- 
pressors, in  words,  in  feelings,  and  in  deeds,  if 
possible,  both  natural  and  justifiable,  we  can 
find  in  Jewish  writings,  representative  of  Jewish 
thought,  nothing  that  breathes  such  a  spirit.  If 
it  was  indulged  in  by  individuals,  goaded  on  by 
the  treatment  to  which  they  were  subjected,  it 
was  not  Jewish,  and  this  drama  is  certainly 
meant  to  present  the  Jew,  typical  as  he  then 
was,  and  his  feelings  toward  the  Christians. 
Let  us  hear  what  some  of  the  best  minds  and 
loftiest  characters  among  the  Jews  have  to  say 
on  this  same  subject  of  the  feelings  to  be  enter- 
tained toward  non-Jews.  In  a  work  written 
some  time  before  this,  we  find  the  following 
sentences :  "  Deceive  none  intentionally  in  your 
transactions ;  also,  no  non-Jew."  "  If  a  Jew  or 
a  non-Jew  come  to  you  and  desire  to  borrow 
money,  and  you  wish  not  to  lend  it,  because  you 
fear  that  you  will  not  receive  it  again,  say  not 
that  you  have  no  money."  "In  your  inter- 


ii.   MARLOWE'S  "  JEW  OF  MALTA."  31 

course  with  non-Jews,  act  with  the  same  up- 
rightness that  you  manifest  toward  Jews ;  call 
the  attention  of  the  non-Jew  to  his  errors.  If 
a  non-Jew  ask  you  for  advice,  tell  him  truly 
what  you  think."  Another  speaks  in  the  fol- 
lowing strain :  "  Such  as  deceive  and  rob  non- 
Jews  belong  to  the  category  of  those  who  blas- 
pheme the  name  of  God."  "  In  trade  and  in 
social  intercourse,  no  person,  no  matter  what 
may  be  his  religion,  may  be  deceived  by  word 
or  deed." 

Compare  this  internal  evidence,  taken  from 
the  writings  of  the  Jews  themselves,  with  that 
line,  "  It 's  no  sin  to  deceive  a  Christian,"  and 
compare,  too,  these  statements  of  the  perse- 
cuted with  the  edicts,  expressions,  and  decrees 
found  in  the  works  of  the  writers  of  the  religion 
in  power,  whenever  they  refer  to  the  Jews,  and 
then  conceive  how  grotesquely  false  a  repre- 
sentation this  statement  is  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Jewish  religion,  as  interpreted  by  its  best 
and  most  competent  minds. 

Yet  all  this  is  nought,  when  compared  with 
the  terrible  and  shocking  description  Barabbas 
gives  of  himself  and  his  doings,  so  monstrous 
and  impossible  that  it  is  indeed  strange  that, 
even  in  that  benighted  time  of  prejudice,  it 
should  not  have  called  forth  condemnation. 
This  is  the  recital  of  the  accomplishments  and 
deeds  of  the  master  villain : 


32  THE  JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

"  As  for  myself,  I  walk  abroad  of  nights 
And  kill  sick  people  groaning  under  walls ; 
Sometimes  I  go  about  and  poison  wells, 
And  now  and  then,  to  cherish  Christian  thieves, 
I  am  content  to  lose  some  of  my  crowns, 
That  I  may,  walking  in  my  gallery, 
See  'em  go  pinioned  along  by  my  door. 
Being  young,  I  studied  physic,  and  began 
To  practice  first  upon  the  Italian  ; 
There  I  enriched  the  priests  with  burials, 
And  always  kept  the  sexton's  arm  in  ure, 
With  digging  graves  and  ringing  dead  men's  knells." 

—(ACT  II.,  Sc.  III.) 

And  so  he  goes  on  to  tell  all  his  numerous 
crimes.  In  the  play,  he  is  made  to  set  two  in- 
nocent young  men  upon  one  another,  that  they 
kill  each  other;  he  poisons  a  whole  nunnery, 
kills  friars,  curses  his  daughter  with  curses  loud 
and  deep,  betrays  the  city  into  the  hands  of  the 
Turks,  invents  infernal  machines  wherewith  to 
slaughter  all  the  Turks ;  so  that,  in  comparison 
with  him,  lago  becomes  almost  a  figure  of  light. 
He  is  merely  a  monster  of  crime  impossible  in 
existence ;  nothing  more  nor  less. 

It  can  be  no  one's  intention  to  justify  him,  for 
he  is  guilty  of  well-nigh  every  crime  imagin- 
able. Black  indeed  must  have  been  the  opinion 
of  the  Jews,  if  such  a  play  of  horrors  could  be 
even  received.  But  received  it  was,  and  that, 
too,  with  favor.  The  greatest  actor  of  the  day 
produced  it,  and  the  pit  rang  with  applause ; 
such  was  the  opinion  of  the  unhappy  people, 


ii.  MARLOWE'S  "  JEW  OF  MALTA."  33 

whose  only  crime  was  that  they  were  a  living 
reproach  to  the  extravagant  claims  of  the  re- 
ligion reigning  triumphant.  It  was  written 
with  no  conception  or  study  of  the  Jewish 
character;  not  one  fundamental  trait,  except 
domestic  affection,  is  mentioned,  and  even  that 
is  later  subverted.  It  has  retained  its  place  as  a 
classic  of  the  language ;  and,  although  its  ex- 
travagances are  no  longer  believed,  still  is  it 
proof  of  that  intolerance  which  "could  treat 
them  (the  Jews)  with  an  amount  of  insolence 
and  injustice  which,  in  the  eyes  of  a  modern 
audience,  half  deprives  the  Christian  of  his 
right  of  sympathy  when  the  Hebrew's  day  of 
vengeance  arrives."  The  Hebrew  longs  for  no 
day  of  vengeance ;  he  thanks  God  that  those 
dark  days  of  bigotry  and  hatred  are  past,  which 
made  even  possible  the  construction  by  an  au- 
thor, and  the  reception  by  the  public,  of  a  pro- 
duction so  dark,  so  monstrous,  so  unreal,  as 
"  The  Jew  of  Malta." 


34  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 


III.     SHAKESPEARE'S   "MERCHANT   OF 
VENICE." 

Of  all  the  Jewish  characters  in  the  domain  of 
English  fiction,  none  is  more  widely  known,  or 
has  heen  the  subject  of  so  much  discussion,  as 
Shylock,  in  Shakespeare's  "  Merchant  of  Ven- 
ice." Of  all  the  creations  of  the  genius  of  the 
world-poet,  none,  we  may  say,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Hamlet,  the  most  Shakespearean  of 
Shakespeare's  characters,  has  received  greater 
attention  than  the  Jew  as  by  him  portrayed. 
From  all  points  of  view  has  he  been  regarded — 
as  the  incarnation  of  wickedness  on  the  one 
hand,  as  the  injured  party  seeking  redress  on 
the  other;  as  the  villain  by  this  critic,  as  the 
justifiable  plaintiff  by  that ;  as  the  Christian- 
baiting  fire-eater  by  one,  as  the  ardent  defender 
of  his  religion  and  his  race  by  another.  His 
motives,  his  actions,  his  character,  his  every 
word,  have  been  subjected  to  examination  and 
criticism,  and  every  one  has  found  something  to 
censure,  to  excuse,  to  reprove,  to  justify,  to 
condemn,  to  condone. 

It  has  been  stated  that  Shakespeare  did  not 
intend  to  give  a  picture  of  the  Jews  in  general. 
We  think  he  did;  certain  it  is,  at  all  events, 
that  the  portrayal  has  always,  by  the  general 


in. 

reader  and  student,  been  taken  as  representative 
of  the  Jewish  character,  and  in  this  light  it 
must  be  treated.  Perhaps  in  the  course  of  our 
investigation,  contrary  to  the  usual  acceptance, 
we  shall  find  that  Shylock  was  in  the  right ;  that 
the  sympathies  of  Shakespeare  were  with  him ; 
that,  in  causing  him  to  be  defeated  by  a  mere 
quibble,  he  demonstrated  the  strength  of  his 
cause,  but  yet  could  not  permit  the  Jew  to 
issue  victorious  over  so  many  noble  Chris- 
tians, in  the  face  of  the  general  feelings  enter- 
tained toward  the  Jews  at  that  time — feelings 
which  had  received  favorably  and  applauded  to 
the  echo  the  atrocities  of  the  "Jew  of  Malta." 
But  to  the  play  first ;  to  an  analysis  of  its  mo- 
tives and  characters  later.  In  this,  as  in  many 
of  his  dramas,  Shakespeare  took  his  plot  from 
others ;  in  truth,  he  combines  two  stories,  that 
of  the  Three  Caskets,  related  in  the  collection 
of  tales  known  as  the  "  Gesta  Romanorum,"  and 
that  of  the  Pound  of  Flesh.  This  latter  story 
was  old,  and  had  appeared  in  many  forms.  The 
first  mention  we  can  find  of  the  flesh  story  is  in 
Hindoo  mythology.  From  there  it  must  have 
traveled  westward,  and  with  the  sentiments  har- 
bored toward  the  Jew,  was  brought  into  con- 
nection with  his  relations  to  the  Christians. 

As  early  as  the  fourth  century,  in  the  time  of 
Elaine,  the  mother  of  Constantine,  we  find  it 
noted.  In  Europe  it  gained  its  foot-hold  from 
the  conception  that  the  creditor,  according  to 


36  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

the  Roman  law,  had  full  power  over  the  debtor, 
and  could  do  with  him  as  he  pleased.  The 
story  appears  in  eleven  different  versions,  into 
four  of  which  no  Jew  is  introduced.  These  are 
all  imaginative  productions.  There  is  but  one 
account  of  this  transaction  which  rests  on  a 
historical  foundation.  This  reverses  the  posi- 
tions of  the  Jew  and  the  Christian.  In  his  life 
of  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  Gregorio  Letti,  the  biog- 
rapher, records  the  following  episode  :  In  1587, 
Paul  Mario  Sechi,  a  merchant  of  Rome,  gained 
information  that  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  English 
Admiral,  had  conquered  San  Domingo.  He 
communicated  this  piece  of  news  to  Simone 
Cenade,  a  Jewish  merchant,  to  whom  it  ap- 
peared incredible,  and  he  said :  "  I  bet  a  pound 
of  flesh  that  it  is  untrue."  "And  I  lay  one 
thousand  scudi  against  it,"  replied  Sechi.  A 
bond  was  drawn  up  to  that  effect.  After  a  few 
days,  news  arrived  of  Drake's  achievement,  and 
the  Christian  insisted  on  the  fulfillment  of  his 
bond.  In  vain  the  Jew  pleaded,  but  Sechi  swore 
that  nothing  could  satisfy  him  but  a  pound  of 
the  Jew's  flesh.  In  his  extremity,  the  Jew  went 
to  the  governor.  The  governor  of  the  city 
promised  his  assistance,  communicated  the  case 
to  Pope  Sixtus,  who  condemned  both  to  the 
galleys — the  Jew  for  making  such  a  wager,  the 
Christian  for  accepting  it.  They  released  them- 
selves from  imprisonment  by  each  paying  a  fine 
of  two  thousand  scudi  toward  the  hospital  of 


in.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE."   37 

the  Sixtine  bridge,  which  the  pope  was  then 
erecting. 

It  is  not  to  be  for  a  moment  supposed,  as  has 
been  suggested,  that  Shakespeare  changed  the 
r6les  of  the  Christian  and  the  Jew.  He  but 
followed  the  ancient  traditional  story,  which 
had  long  been  circulated  and  was  well  known. 
From  the  similarity,  both  of  circumstances  and 
of  names,  there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the 
poet  obtained  this  portion  of  the  plot  of  the 
play  from  a  tale  called  "  The  Adventures  of 
Gianotto,"  published  at  Milan,  in  1558,  in  a  col- 
lection entitled  "  II  Pecarone."  In  this  tale, 
with  but  a  few  variations,  we  have  the  story  as 
detailed  in  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice."  There 
was  also  a  ballad,  "  Gernutus,  the  Jew  of  Yen- 
ice,"  with  the  same  subject-matter,  and  another 
ballad,  entitled  "  The  Northern  Lord,"  of  much 
the  same  tenor.  In  all  of  these  versions  of  the 
story,  there  is  the  same  subterfuge  of  riot  shed- 
ding a  drop  of  blood;  two  of  them  introduce 
a  woman  in  disguise,  who,  like  Portia,  by  this 
same  argument,  frees  the  debtor,  and  discomfits 
and  defeats  the  Jew-creditor.  The  plot  is  bor- 
rowed; Shakespeare's  treatment  thereof,  how- 
ever, is  entirely  his  own.  Many  critics,  among 
others  the  German  Bodenstedt,  have  looked 
upon  the  "  Jew  of  Malta"  as  the  forerunner  of 
Shylock.  In  time  it  was,  but  in  nought  else ;  if 
any  thing  at  all,  but  a  few  trifling  hints  were 
caught  from  it.  There  is  all  the  difference  be- 


38  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

tween  the  two  plays  that  can  be  imagined  as 
existing  between  a  frightful  and  hideous  cari- 
cature, which  Marlowe's  Jew  is,  and  a  heroic, 
intensely  tragic  figure,  proud,  deep,  at  times 
rising  even  to  grandeur,  such  as  Shakespeare's 
Jew  is ;  all  the  difference  between  a  representa- 
tion calculated  to  stir  only  the  worst  passions  of 
a  listening  multitude,  and  a  characterization 
delineated  with  the  purpose  of  doing  some  good 
and  justice  to  the  despised  race,  in  showing 
plainly  that  if  they  felt  as  they  did,  there  was 
ample  cause  therefor ;  they  were  only  following 
out  the  lessons  taught  them  by  their  Christian 
neighbors.  Without  considering  now  whether 
or  not  the  sentiments  uttered  by  Shylock  were 
Jewish,  which  we  shall  do  later  on,  let  us  first 
study  the  character  as  presented,  and  learn 
whether,  throughout  the  play,  sufficient  reasons 
are  not  given  for  the  actions  as  portrayed,  and 
whether  the  ending  of  the  whole  is  not  in  defer- 
ence to  the  spirit  of  the  time  and  of  centuries 
later,  which  the  poet  could  not  overcome ;  for 
how  could  a  "  villain  Jew  "  gain  the  better  of 
his  foes?  That  Shakespeare  joined  in  the  vul- 
gar feeling  of  prejudice  which  then  existed,  we 
can  scarcely  say  when  he  drew  this  character. 
Shylock  has  the  better  of  all  his  adversaries  in 
every  argument.  Their  reasoning  is  shorn  of 
all  its  strength  when  he  brings  against  them  his 
"  tremendous  artillery  of  withering  scorn  and 
unanswerable  fact."  Nowhere  in  the  play  does 


39 

any  one  for  a  moment  hold  strength  against 
Shylock,  until  at  the  end,  with  all  arrayed 
against  him,  he  is  overwhelmed  and  hroken  by 
an  ingenious  trick  which  his  enemies  eagerly 
seize  upon. 

What  lends  the  atrocious  aspect  to  the  play  is 
the  pound  of  flesh,  but  only  with  a  bond  of  this 
character  could  the  poet's  purpose  be  accom- 
plished. The  Jew  is  actually  victorious  and  tri- 
umphant in  all  but  point  of  fact;  the  argu- 
ments are  all  in  his  favor ;  beneath  the  surface  a 
deep  current  runs,  which  he  who  follows  can 
understand.  There  are  beautiful  and  tender 
spots  in  his  character ;  it  is  only  when  all  the 
wrongs  imaginable  have  been  heaped  upon  him 
— curses  against  his  nation,  vile  abuse  and  con- 
tumely against  himself,  insults  against  his  relig- 
ion, scorn  and  invective  against  his  daily  mode 
of  life  and  business — that  his  nature  rebels,  that 
thoughts  and  plans  of  revenge  arise  within  him. 
But  let  us  examine  this  more  in  detail.  The 
play  opens  with  an  account  of  Antonio  the  mer- 
chant's affairs ;  he  has  all  his  wealth  out  on 
venture,  and  is  sad  and  anxious.  To  him  comes 
his  bosom  friend,  Bassanio,  who  has  squandered 
his  patrimony  by  his  spendthrift  habits,  has 
borrowed  money  from  his  friends  without  pros- 
pect of  repaying  them,  and  now,  when  his  for- 
tunes are  at  the  lowest  ebb,  will  make  one  bold 
stroke  of  speculation,  try  to  win  the  hand  of  an 
heiress,  and  set  up  an  establishment  with  her 


40  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

money;  but,  before  the  prize  can  be  won,  he 
needs  the  money  to  deck  himself  out  properly, 
to  appear  before  the  lady  he  would  woo.  For 
this  purpose  he  approaches  Antonio.  The  latter 
is  in  narrow  straits ;  he  can  not  aid  his  friend 
personally.  Bassanio  is  authorized  to  borrow 
sufficient  for  his  needs  in  Antonio's  name. 

Antonio's  credit  must  have  been  low,  indeed, 
if  they  had  to  resort  to  Shylock,  the  hated  Jew, 
for  the  loan.  Shylock  is  introduced  in  conver- 
sation with  Bassanio  ;  he  weighs  his  words  and 
reasons  well,  carefully  recounts  Antonio's  ven- 
tures, and  concludes  that  he  may  take  his  bond. 
Every  thing  goes  well  thus  far.  Antonio  comes 
upon  the  scene ;  Shylock  ruminates  and  medi- 
tates a  long  time ;  he  intends  to  lend  the  money 
all  the  while,  but  ere  he  promises  to  do  so,  he 
will  drive  home  a  pointed  shaft;  he  will  show 
his  petitioners  how  little  cause  they  have  to  ex- 
pect favor  from  him : 

"Signer  Antonio,  many  a  time  and  oft, 
In  the  Rialto,  you  have  rated  me 
About  my  moneys  and  my  usances. 
Still  have  I  borne  it  with  a  patient  shrug; 
For  suffering  is  the  badge  of  all  our  tribe; 
You  call  me  misbeliever,  cut-throat  dog, 
And  spit  upon  my  Jewish  gaberdine, 
And  all  for  use  of  that  which  is  mine  own. 
Well,  then,  it  now  appears  you  need  my  help: 
Go  to,  then ;  you  come  to  me  and  you  say, 

' Shylock,  we  would  have  moneys; '  you  say  BO; 
You,  that  did  void  your  rheum  upon  my  beard, 


in.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE."    41 

And  foot  me,  as  you  spurn  a  stranger  cur 
Over  your  threshold:  moneys  is  your  suit. 
What  should  I  say  to  you?    Should  I  not  say, 

'  Hath  a  dog  money?     Is  it  possible 
A  cur  can  lend  three  thousand  ducats?'     Or 
Shall  1  bend  low  and,  in  a  bondman's  key, 
With  bated  breath,  and  whispering  humbleness, 
Say  this : 

'Fair  sir,  you  spit  on  me  on  Wednesday  last; 
You  spurned  me  such  a  day;  another  time 
You  called  me — dog;  and  for  these  courtesies 
I'll  lend  you  thus  much  moneys?'" 

—(ACT  I,  So.  III.) 

What  a  world  of  reason  and  argument  here ! 
What  finely  turned  scorn  and  sarcasm !  This 
can  not  be  answered ;  he  has  been  insulted  as  a 
man,  as  a  merchant,  as  a  Jew ;  his  pride,  his 
manhood,  so  long  compelled  to  bear  all  with  a 
patient  shrug,  here  breaks  forth  with  vehemence 
against  those  who  had  thus  trampled  upon  him  ; 
all  the  pent-up  passion  bursts  its  bounds,  and 
the  outraged  feelings  express  themselves  in 
words.  And  his  statements  can  not  be  gain- 
said. All  that  Antonio  can  say  is  a  dogged 
"I  am  like  to  call  thee  so  again,  to  spit  on 
thee  again,  to  spurn  thee,  too."  Here  speaks 
the  feeling  of  intolerance  of  the  time ;  no  con- 
sideration, no  compassion  ;  here  lies  a  rebuke  to 
the  enemies  of  the  Jew.  After  all  the  vehement 
exclamations  of  his  wrongs,  he  is  met  by  a 
"And  I  will  do  so  again."  Can,  we  may 
imagine  the  poet  asking,  it  be  expected  that 
aught  but  feelings  of  hatred  toward  his  op- 


42  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

pressors  fill  the  breast  of  the  Jew,  of  any  man 
who  is  thus  treated  ?  On  this  line  the  character 
of  Shylock  is  worked  out ;  he  is  given  no  mercy, 
no  quarter ;  he  expects  none,  and  he  gives  none. 
Cruelty,  wrong,  hatred,  and  oppression  have 
gradually  congealed  all  his  kindlier  motives 
toward  his  Christian  neighbors.  This,  it  would 
seem  to  any  observer,  would  be  the  natural  con- 
clusion. Shakespeare,  from  his  vantage  ground, 
was  justified  in  taking  for  granted  that  hatred 
and  desire  for  revenge  would  exist  in  the  Jew's 
heart,  judged  he  him  from  his  knowledge  of 
human  nature. 

Shylock  offers  to  lend  the  money  for  three 
months  on  the  giving  of  a  bond  by  Antonio, 
that  if  the  money  is  not  paid,  he  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  cut  a  pound  of  flesh  from  his  body. 
This  is  acceded  to,  considered  even  kind ;  they 
call  him  now  "  gentle  Jew,"  and  find  "  there  is 
much  kindness  in  the  Jew."  Thus  far  we  have 
Shylock  presented  to  us  in  purely  business 
transactions.  He  next  appears  to  us  in  his 
home.  He  has  a  daughter  whom  he  fondly  loves, 
for  she  is  the  only  offspring  of  his  beloved  Leah. 
As  a  tender  father,  he  intrusts  every  thing  to 
this  daughter,  and  she,  perfidious  to  her  trust, 
robs  him,  leaves  his  house  to  marry  with  a 
Christian,  and  acts  the  r6le  of  the  ungrateful, 
undutiful  child.  He  is  wounded  where  the 
wound  rankles  most  keenly ;  his  beloved  child 
has  turned  traitorous.  Rather  would  he  see  her 


in.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE."   43 

dead  at  his  feet,  than  to  have  married  with  the 
Christian.  His  hard-earned  wealth  has  been 
taken ;  he  is  cruelly  and  mercilessly  twitted  by 
the  unfeeling  gentlemen  of  Venice;  worst  of 
all,  he  hears  that  the  ring  given  him  by  his  be- 
loved wife  has  been  exchanged  by  his  daughter 
for  a  monkey.  Love  is  trampled  on ;  affection 
is  outraged ;  his  enemies  gloat  over  his  pain  and 
his  misfortunes ;  all  the  warm  blood  freezes  in 
his  veins,  the  tender  feelings  he  may  have  had 
become  hardened  into  stone.  They  have  railed 
at  him  and  derided  him ;  they  have  stolen  his 
child  and  his  fortune.  They  have  insulted  his 
name  and  his  religion.  The  poet  shows  every 
cause  why  Shylock  should  have  acted  as  he  did, 
and  when  he  heard  of  Antonio's  losses,  it  were 
unnatural  that  he  should  not  rejoice.  They  did 
not  treat  him  so  well  that  he  should  now  show 
mercy.  How  he  silences  them,  when  in  plead- 
ing for  their  friend,  Antonio,  he  rises  to  the  dig- 
nity of  defender  of  an  outraged  and  cruelly 
treated  race !  How  the  thunder  of  his  words 
overwhelms  them  with  rushing  sound  and 
force.  "  He  hath  disgraced  me  and  hindered 
me  half  a  million ;  laughed  at  my  losses,  mocked 
at  my  gains,  scorned  my  nation,  thwarted  my 
bargains,  cooled  my  friends,  heated  mine  ene- 
mies, and  what's  his  reason  ?  I  am  a  Jew.  Hath 
not  a  Jew  eyes?  Hath  not  a  Jew  hands,  or- 
gans, dimensions,  senses,  affections,  passions? 
Fed  with  the  same  food,  hurt  with  the  same 


44  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

weapons,  subject  to  the  same  diseases,  healed 
by  the  same  means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the 
same  winter  and  summer  as  a  Christian  is  ? 
If  you  prick  us,  do  we  not  bleed?  If  you 
tickle  us,  do  we  not  laugh  ?  If  you  poison  us, 
do  we  not  die  ?  If  you  wrong  us,  shall  we  not 
revenge?  If  we  are  like  you  in  the  rest,  we 
will  resemble  you  in  that.  If  a  Jew  wrong  a 
Christian,  what  is  his  humility  ?  Revenge.  If 
a  Christian  wrong  a  Jew,  what  should  his  suf- 
france  be  by  Christian  example?  Why,  re- 
venge. The  villainy  you  teach  me,  I  will  exe- 
cute, and  it  shall  go  hard,  but  I  will  better  the 
instruction."  (Act  III,  Scene  I.)  In  this  pass- 
age it  is  that  Shakespeare  shows  that  if  the  Jew 
hate  the  Christian,  it  is  not  without  cause ;  he 
presents  the  Jew  here  as  he  would  any  man 
who,  insulted,  derided,  mocked  in  all  his  dearest 
interests  and  connections  by  those  upon  whom 
he  can  not  retaliate,  now,  when  the  power  is  in 
his  hands,  rejoices  that  his  day  has  come.  That 
this  is  natural  can  not  be  denied.  Antonio  him- 
self expected  nothing  else,  for  when  he  bor- 
rowed the  money,  he  said  :  "  If  thou  wilt  lend 
this  money,  lend  it  not  as  to  thy  friends,  but 
lend  it  rather  to  thine  enemy,  who,  if  he  break, 
thou  mayest,  with  better  face,  exact  the  pen- 
alty." (Act  I,  Scene  III.)  And  it  seems 
strangely  inconsistent  that  Antonio,  knowing 
and  expecting  this,  should  have  awaited  any 
other  fate  at  the  hands  of  his  enemy.  The  time 


45 

for  the  redeeming  of  the  bond  is  drawing  nigh. 
Bassanio,  living  in  luxury  and  basking  in  the 
sun  of  beauty  and  of  pleasure,  forgets  all  about 
his  friend  until  he  is  awakened  to  the  extremity 
by  a  letter.  Pressed,  he  makes  known  his  neg- 
ligence, is  dispatched  by  Portia  with  a  sufficient 
sum,  and  more,  to  redeem  the  bond,  but  arrives 
too  late.  Shylock  will  accept  no  money;  he 
wants  revenge ;  he  will  have  his  bond.  It  is  all 
right  in  law ;  the  laws  of  Venice  may  not  be 
transgressed.  He  is  pressed  by  all  to  show 
mercy,  he  to  whom  mercy  never  was  shown, 
and  when  asked  by  the  Duke,  "  How  shalt  thou 
hope  for  mercy,  rendering  none  ? "  he  again 
gives  one  of  those  unanswerable  arguments  of 
his  which  effectually  silences  all  opposition.  In 
argument  he  always  has  the  stronger  side : 

"What  judgment  shall  I  dread,  doing  no  wrong? 
You  have  among  you  many  a  purchased  slave, 
Which,  like  your  asses,  and  your  dogs  and  mules, 
You  use  in  abject  and  in  slavish  parts, 
Because  you  bought  them ;  shall  I  say  to  you, 
Let  them  be  free,  marry  them  to  your  heirs? 
Why  sweat  they  under  burdens  ?    Let  their  beds 
Be  made  as  soft  as  yours,  and  let  their  palates 
Be  seasoned  with  rich  viands  ?    You  will  answer, 
The  slaves  are  ours;  so  do  I  answer  you: 
The  pound  of  flesh  which  I  demand  of  him 
Is  dearly  bough t,'tis mine,  and  I  will  have  it. 
If  you  deny  me,  fie  upon  your  law  ! 
There  is  no  force  in  the  decrees  of  Venice. 
I  stand  for  judgment;  answer,  shall  I  have  it? 

—(ACT  IV,  Sc.  I.) 


46  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

The  law  is  on  his  side;  the  court  can  not 
answer  him ;  he  is  victorious.  At  the  last  mo- 
ment a  messenger  arrives  with  the  news  that  a 
learned  judge  has  come  from  Padua,  who  will 
undertake  the  case.  Portia,  in  the  guise  of  a 
lawyer,  enters.  After  trying  to  move  Shylock 
from  his  purpose,  the  judge  seems  to  give  in  to 
him,  hut,  at  the  last  moment,  hy  a  quibble,  turns 
the  scale,  he  is  to  shed  no  drop  of  blood ;  he  is 
to  take  exactly  one  pound — as  if  he  might  not 
have  taken  less  if  he  so  willed.  This  quibble,  a 
loop-hole  of  escape,  is  readily  grasped.  Shy- 
lock  is  dumbfounded  and  defeated.  Ridiculed, 
scorned,  mocked,  he  goes  forth,  deprived  of  his 
goods,  compelled  to  turn  Christian,  forced  to 
recognize  his  faithless  child  and  give  her  of  his 
wealth. 

Throughout  the  play,  then,  as  we  have  briefly 
noted  those  portions  most  necessary  to  an  un- 
derstanding of  the  Jew's  position,  we  feel  that 
he  has  the  better  of  his  enemies ;  his  reasonings 
are  potent,  his  wrath  and  indignation  just;  his 
injured  feelings  as  parent,  as  merchant,  as  man, 
as  Jew,  excite  compassion.  I  have  referred 
to  the  remarkable  advance  made  over  the  delin- 
eation of  the  Jew  in  Marlowe's  play,  and  will 
take  occasion  to  quote  the  words  of  an  acute 
thinker,  who  says :  "  No  one  can  carefully  com- 
pare Shylock  with  Barabbas,  without  recogniz- 
ing a  purpose  to  modify  and  soften  the  popular 
feeling  toward  the  Jew,  to  picture  a  man,  where 


in.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE."    47 

Marlowe  painted  a  monster,  if  not  indeed  to 
mirror  for  Christians  their  own  injustice  and 
cruelty."  The  one  atrocious  element  of  the 
play,  which  has  caused  all  the  wrongs  of  Shy- 
lock  to  be  overlooked,  and  has  withdrawn  all 
sympathy  from  him,  is  the  pound  of  flesh;  it 
has  been  sufficient  to  cover  his  name  with  ob- 
loquy, and  make  it  a  by-word.  This  is  the  one 
point  wherein  Shakespeare's  otherwise  humane 
and  noble  production  is  guilty  of  gross  injustice. 
But,  as  stated  above,  something  was  neces- 
sary to  defeat  the  Jew;  he  could  not,  with  the 
feelings  and  animosities  that  existed  toward  him 
at  that  time,  issue  entirely  victorious;  that 
would  have  seemed  ridiculous.  The  feelings  oi 
the  poet,  however,  are  with  him ;  he  is  arguing 
the  cause  of  an  oppressed  race ;  he  did  not  de- 
sire to  press  the  unfortunates  still  lower  and 
add  another  burden  to  the  heavy  load  they 
had  to  carry,  as  the  play  unexpectedly  proved, 
for  it  was  not  understood;  he  tried  to  give 
reasons  for  their  supposed  actions  and  feelings, 
and  to  mitigate  the  harsh  sentiments  of  the 
Christians.  It  had  all  been  well  done  had  not 
this  element  of  the  pound  of  flesh  been  intro 
duced;  any  thing  less  atrocious  (if  the  Jew, 
in  deference  to  popular  opinion  had  to  be 
defeated  in  the  end)  had  served  the  purpose 
better,  especially  as  it  is  so  peculiarly  un- 
Jewish.  It  had  been  more  appropriate  to  have 
reversed  the  roles  of  the  two  religions,  for  even 


48  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

had  the  Jews  had  such  desires,  Christianity, 
wielding  the  scepter  of  power,  could  readily  have 
incapacitated  them.  History  plainly  tells  which 
of  the  two  caused  the  blood  to  flow,  and  in  its 
fierceness  sacrificed  hecatombs  upon  hecatombs 
of  human  victims  to  its  hatred.  If  it  be  pointed 
out  that  the  fierce  spirit  of  retaliation  which 
Shylock  assumes  when  he  demands  that  flesh  is 
Jewish,  because  the  lex  talionis  is  embodied  in  the 
Mosaic  law,  we  need  only  refer  to  the  later  Jew- 
ish law  books,  commentaries  on  and  explanations 
of  the  Mosaic  code,  wherein  it  is  expressly  noted 
that  no  literal  interpretation  of  this  law  was 
ever  applied  or  intended,  that  restitution  in 
money  was  all  that  could  be  asked  or  required. 
When  the  money,  therefore,  is  offered  to  Shy- 
lock,  had  he  acted  in  the  sense  of  the  Jewish 
law  he  would  have  accepted  it ;  but  the  Roman 
law  permitted  the  creditor  to  beat,  maltreat, 
maim,  mangle  the  debtor  to  his  heart's  content, 
for  he  was  his  property,  and  on  the  Roman  law 
the  case  rests.  When  Shylock  is  defeated,  he 
is  not  so  in  law ;  even  here  he  has  the  right,  and 
the  Roman  law  was  violated,  for  the  quibble 
that  he  shed  not  a  drop  of  blood  has  been  often 
shown  to  be  a  mere  trick,  as  the  blood  belongs 
to  the  flesh,  and  it  is  just  as  when  a  man  buys 
a  field  he  buys  every  thing  thereto  belonging, 
trees,  plants,  rocks,  whatever  there  may  be. 
But  however  admirable  Shylock's  fervent  plea 
for  his  people  may  be,  however  ardent  his  words 


in.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OP  VENICE."    49 

in  the  former  parts  of  the  play,  in  his  bitter  re- 
venge he  ceases  to  be  representatively  Jewish ; 
"  sufferance  was  the  badge  of  all  his  tribe,"  they 
prayed  for  respite  and  for  peace.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  reiterate  or  multiply  quotations  from 
Jewish  writers  bidding  their  co-religionists  en- 
tertain kindly  feelings  toward  non-Jews,  which 
would  make  impossible  any  such  transaction  as 
that  of  the  pound  of  flesh.  There  were  even 
times  when  in  particularly  favorable  intervals 
in  Spain  and  Portugal,  in  France  and  Turkey, 
the  Jews  rose  to  the  highest  power,  when  it  had 
been  possible  for  them  to  take  sanguinary  ven- 
geance on  their  former  oppressors  and  perse- 
cutors, but  we  do  not  hear  that  feelings  of  re- 
venge took  them  to  any  such  lengths.  The 
cruelty  was  all  on  the  other  side.  Shylock 
states  the  case  strongly.  Through  him  Shake- 
speare read  a  wonderful  lesson  to  his  contempo- 
raries ;  it  is  their  persecution  that  has  brought 
the  Jew  low.  "  The  villainy  you  teach,"  Shy- 
lock  speaks  of.  The  intolerance  is  strongly 
brought  out.  The  Jews  were  insulted  in  every 
thing  they  held  dear,  chiefly  their  religion. 
They  had  all  the  strongest  provocations  for  en- 
tertaining feelings  of  revenge,  and  the  play 
shows  that  had  they  followed  examples  set  be- 
fore them  such  would  have  been  their  desire 
when  opportunity  was  granted  them.  Wise 
teachers  counseled  forbearance.  Suffering  was 
looked  upon  as  resultant  from  sin.  God,  in 


50  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

his  own  time,  would  bring  salvation  and  re- 
demption to  his  people.  That  was  Jewish 
thought.  They  took  it  not  into  their  own 
hands.  Often  may  they  have  cried  in  their  an- 
guish, "How  long,  O  God,  how  long?"  But 
they  firmly  believed  in  the  statement  of  the  Bib- 
lical writer,  "  Vengeance  is  mine,  saith  God."  In 
accordance  with  this  thought  the  vengeance  of 
Shylock,  as  Jewish,  is  an  impossibility.  It 
should  never  be  regarded  as  typical. 

When  Shylock,  at  the  end  of  his  trial,  says,  in 
answer  to  the  question  of  the  Duke,  whether  to 
retain  half  his  fortune  he  will  turn  Christian,  "  I 
am  content,"  the  character,  as  Jewish,  is  again 
not  consistently  carried  out.  What,  after  he  has 
been  so  outraged  and  insulted  on  account  of  his 
religion,  after  he  has  cursed  and  renounced  his 
daughter  for  marrying  a  Christian,  he,  to  save 
his  property,  likewise  turn  Christian !  What, 
this  Jewish !  In  those  days,  when  old  and 
young,  men  and  women,  youths  and  maidens, 
sacrificed  their  lives  rather  than  change  their 
religion !  Were  Shylock,  as  representative  of 
Jewish  thought,  fervently  attached  to  his  re- 
ligion as  we  must  imagine  the  Jews .  to  have 
been,  valuing  it  even  more  than  life,  it  had  been 
unnatural  to  have  used  the  words  "  I  am  con- 
tent." As  a  humane  man,  and  a  great  mind 
that  could  rise  above  passion  and  prejudice, 
Shakespeare  speaks  a  mighty  w^ord,  that  sounds 


m.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE."    51 

all  the  stronger  because  of  its  singularity ;  but 
into  the  true  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the 
Jew,  he  could  not  enter,  the  opportunity  was 
not  hiSc 

In  regard  to  that  other  disagreeable  trait  with 
which  the  Jew  is  burdened,  usury  and  avarice, 
which,  strong  as  it  is,  is  made  even  subservient 
to  his  bitter  revenge,  for  he  refuses  a  great  sum 
when  offered  him  in  satisfaction  of  his  claim, 
I  need  no  more  than  refer  to  the  many  state- 
ments of  contemporary  writers  quoted  in  the 
chapter  on  the  "  Jew  of  Malta."  These  show  the 
prevalence  of  this  practice  among  all  classes, 
Christian  and  Jewish,  It  was  a  curse  to  which 
all  were  addicted,  one  of  the  many  canker- 
worms  which  were  gnawing  at  and  sapping  the 
strength  of  society.  It  is  the  fashion,  from  igno- 
rance, to  consider  it  only  Jewish ;  we  will  let  the 
case  rest  on  the  testimony  of  those  living  wit- 
nesses, who  inform  us  otherwise, 

In  the  ardor  for  his  religion  which  Sh'ylock  dis- 
plays in  the  earlier  portions  of  the  play,  in  his 
strong  statements  of  the  wrongs  done  his  people, 
in  his  close  intimacy  with  his  Jewish  friends,  as 
suggested  by  the  dialogue  with  Tubal,  in  his  in- 
tense love  for  his  daughter,  in  his  disappoint- 
ment, rage  and  anger  at  her  having  married  one 
of  the  oppressing  class,  Shylock  is  Jewish. 
There  are  natures,  too,  among  the  Jews,  as  among 
all  other  classes,  with  that  intense  hatred  and 
desire  for  vengeance  which  stop  at  naught,  not 


52  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 

even  blood,  but,  as  one  of  such,  he  is  not  repre- 
sentatively Jewish, 

Shylock  stands  as  a  grand  creation  of  a  master 
mind,  essentially  tragic,  intense  in  his  every  word 
and  action,  a  picture  of  what  the  best-inten- 
tioned  and  highest  mind,  wishing  to  do  some 
justice  to  the  Jews,  and  to  relieve  the  black  and 
terrible  picture  presented  by  an  earlier  play, 
conceived  to  be  true.  In  its  subtler  and  finer 
portions,  it  was  not  comprehended  by  the  many, 
and  by  its  denouement,  aroused  all  the  passions 
which  it  wished  to  allay. 

"  Neither  Christianity  nor  Judaism  is  to  blame, 
or  to  be  commended  for  Antonio  or  Shylock." 
We  must  look  upon  them  as  individuals,  with- 
out regard  to  religion.  In  any  other  case  that 
had  been  understood.  With  the  Jew  it  was 
not,  for  prejudice  and  hatred  were  too  strong. 
The  time  has  come  when  the  production  of  the 
play  no  longer  arouses  these  passions.  It  is 
studied  and  witnessed  like  any  other  of  Shake- 
speare's plays.  The  evil  it  has  done  is  past,  for 
the  spirit  which  interpreted  it  for  evil,  exists 
no  longer.  Only  with  the  narrowest  minds  does 
the  idea  still  hold  that  Shylock  is  such  because 
he  is  a  Jew ;  the  happy  thought  is  spreading 
that  a  man's  religion  is  not  to  be  made  responsi- 
ble for  his  faults.  The  encomiums  passed  upon 
many  a  confessor  of  that  same  religion,  to  whose 
detriment  Shylock  has  always  been  pointed  out 
as  the  true  picture  and  embodiment,  offer  suffi- 


in.  SHAKESPEARE'S  "  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE."   53 

dent  reason  to  believe  that  the  spirit  of  the  age 
would  favorably  receive  a  play  with  a  Jew  pos- 
sessing all  the  noble  qualities  with  which  Shake- 
speare invested  him  who  is  considered  by  many 
the  prince  of  gentlemen — Antonio,  "  The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice." 


54  THE  JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 


IV.     CUMBERLAND'S  «  THE  JEW." 

The  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  freedom  and  humanity, 
which  appeared  in  all  the  provinces  of  thought 
and  of  action;  in  thought,  Kant  opened  up  a 
new  channel;  in  action,  the  American  and 
French  revolutions  gave  ample  evidence  that  a 
new  state  of  things  had  arisen,  that  the  regime 
of  the  middle  ages  was  at  an  end,  and  mankind 
had  entered  upon  an  entirely  different  course. 
Among  those  who  still  had  most  to  suffer  from 
the  influence  of  medieval  times  were  the  Jews, 
but  even  for  them  light  was  breaking.  In  Ger- 
many, the  new  spirit  had  become  embodied  in 
Lessing's  two  dramas,  wherein  he  speaks  a 
powerful  word,  as  only  he  could  speak  it,  for 
those  whose  disinterested  protectors  had  been 
so  few,  and  in  Dohm's  noble  work,  which  pleads 
for  a  full  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  an  enduring 
monument,  attesting  a  liberality  of  thought  and 
sentiment,  rare  even  then.  In  France,  Mira- 
beau's  "  Memoir  of  Mendelssohn,"  the  writings 
of  the  Abbe  Gregoire,  and  others,  gave  proof  of 
the  same.  In  England,  the  position  of  the 
Jews  was  that  of  aliens.  Some  efforts  had  been 
made  toward  an  amelioration  of  their  lot  and 
an  emancipation  from  their  civil  disabilities. 


55 

In  truth,  a  bill  to  that  effect  had  been  passed  in 
Parliament  in  1753,  but  on  the  petition  of  the 
city  of  London  and  other  towns,  it  was  repealed 
in  the  following  year.  Their  residence  in  the 
country  was  one  of  sufferance.  True,  a  few 
noble  voices  had  been  raised  in  their  interest, 
but  the  feelings  of  the  masses  had  not  much 
changed  from  what  they  had  been  in  the  days  of 
persecution. 

In  literature,  nothing  had  been  published  by 
any  writer  of  note  in  their  behalf.  The  Jew  of 
Malta  and  Shylock,  interpreted  in  the  worst 
light,  still  stood  in  literature  as  representative 
characters.  Perhaps  it  was  that,  at  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  spirit  of  Lessing  and 
of  Mirabeau  was  wafted  across  the  channel,  for 
at  this  time  a  play  was  produced  with  a  Jew  as 
the  principal  character,  who,  in  nobility,  un- 
selfishness, and  benevolence,  can  stand  alongside 
of  Lessing's  Nathan,  though  the  English  play 
does  not  evince  the  transcendent  qualities  of 
mind  and  thought  as  does  the  German,  "  The 
Jew,"  a  play  by  Richard  Cumberland,  was 
written  in  1794.  It  is  generally  conceded  to  be 
one  of  the  finest  efforts  of  this  voluminous 
writer.  We  can  not  but  admire  the  freedom 
and  breadth  of  thought  which  could  discern  in 
one  of  a  usually  despised  race  the  noble  traits 
which  are  ascribed  to  the  Jew,  Sheva.  Cumber- 
land wrote  his  memoirs,  and  from  them  let  me 
quote  several  expressions  that  do  him  great 


56  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

honor.  He  had  written,  some  time  before,  a 
Spanish  story,  in  which  he  introduced  a  noble 
character,  Abraham  Abrahams.  Of  this  he 
says:  "  I  wrote  it  upon  principle,  thinking  it 
high  time  that  something  should  be  done  for  a 
persecuted  race.  I  seconded  my  appeal  to  the 
charity  of  mankind  by  the  character  of  Sheva, 
which  I  copied  from  that  of  Abraham"  (Me- 
moirs, 304).  And  in  another  place,  in  speaking 
of  the  reception  of  his  play,  he  says :  "The 
benevolence  of  the  audience  assisted  me  in 
rescuing  a  forlorn  and  persecuted  character, 
which,  till  then,  had  only  been  brought  upon 
the  stage  for  the  unmanly  purpose  of  being 
made  a  spectacle  of  contempt  and  a  butt  for 
ridicule.  In  the  success  of  this  comedy,  I  felt, 
of  course,  a  greater  gratification  than  I  had  ever 
felt  before  on  a  like  occasion."  (Ibid.  340.) 

Times  were  changing.  The  new  spirit  was 
abroad.  The  personation  of  kindness  and 
benevolence  was  offered  in  a  Jew,  of  hardness 
and  meanness  in  a  Christian,  and  yet  the  drama 
was  favorably  received.  Whatever  may  have 
been  thought  of  the  impossibility  of  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  character  among  the  Jews,  still 
the  very  fact  of  its  being  portrayed,  evidences 
a  better  and  more  tolerant  spirit.  In  an  earlier 
day  it  would  not  have  been  possible.  A  gradual 
change  in  public  opinion  was  taking  place. 
The  time  was  ripe.  Patience,  only  patience! 
A  few  years  more,  and  the  deeply  wronged 


iv.  CUMBERLAND'S  "  THE  JEW."  57 

children  of  Israel  would  take  their  stand  accord- 
ing to  their  merits,  not  held  down  by  prejudice. 
The  stage  is  one  of  the  pulses  of  the  popular 
life.  The  favor  evinced  to  a  play  attributing 
the  noblest  qualities  to  the  Jew  was  a  good  sign. 
The  mind  of  the  people  was  being  prepared. 
England,  then  aristocratic  England,  clinging 
with  all  its  strength  to  national  traditions,  was 
wheeling  about  and  falling  into  line ;  one  of  its 
traditions  was  the  inferiority  of  the  Jew.  Late 
was  England  in  granting  full  emancipation,  but 
there  all  things  work  slowly.  The  people  must 
be  educated  by  agitation.  "When  the  necessity 
of  a  reform  has  dawned  upon  the  popular  mind, 
aa  in  no  other  country,  it  takes  strong  hold, 
never  to  be  revoked;  so  was  it  with  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  Jews.  A  few  greater  and  nobler 
minds  agitated  for  years  this  question,  gaining 
always  more  adherents,  until  it  became  the  sense 
of  the  country.  We  might  call  them  the  van- 
guard who  led  the  way  that  the  great  army  of 
the  people  later  followed.  Among  this  vanguard, 
we  may  surely  regard  the  author  of  this  play, 
whose  sentiments  have  just  been  expressed. 

Ere  proceeding  to  a  discussion  of  the  play,  it 
will,  perhaps,  be  well  to  give  a  short  abstract 
thereof,  for  it  is  not  now  very  well  known.  It 
belongs  to  the  class  of  plays  then  popular,  but  is 
not  to  be  mentioned  among  the  great  dramatic 
classics  of  the  language. 

An   English   baronet,   Sir   Stephen   Bertram, 


58  THE   JEW   IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

close-fisted  and  miserly,  forbids  his  son  Frederick 
to  marry  a  Miss  Ratcliffe,  whose  only  crime  lies 
in  her  poverty,  but  the  son  has  already  married 
the  lady  of  his  choice.  In  Sir  Stephen's  office 
is  employed  the  lady's  brother,  Charles  Ratcliffe. 
The  Ratcliffe  family,  consisting  of  a  widowed 
mother,  the  son,  and  daughter,  had  been  in  af- 
fluent circumstances,  but  reverses  set  in.  Charles 
Ratcliffe  is  dismissed  from  the  employ  of  Sir 
Stephen,  when  the  Baronet  hears  of  his  son's  in- 
fatuation with  the  sister.  The  good  spirit  of  the 
play  is  the  Jew  Sheva.  He  is  generally  looked 
upon  as  a  miser ;  his  occupation  is  that  of  the 
conventional  Jew  of  the  stage,  a  money-lender. 
He  lives  sparingly,  and  stints  himself  that  he 
may  have  the  more  to  give  to  others.  He  be- 
comes specially  interested  in  Charles  Ratcliffe 
and  his  family,  because  the  young  man  had  res- 
cued him  from  indignities  and  injuries  when  a 
crowd  had  set  upon  the  Jew,  and  this  interest 
deepens  far  when  he  learns  that  Ratcliffe  is  the 
son  of  the  man  who,  in  earlier  years,  had  saved 
him  from  the  auto-da-fe  in  Spain.  This  Sheva 
gives  utterance  to  the  noblest  sentiments.  His 
life  is  devoted  to  the  purpose  of  doing  good 
secretly.  His  charity  is  unostentatious,  he  even 
disclaims  all  knowledge  of  the  good  he  does ; 
he  carries  out  the  old  Talmudic  maxim  to  give 
to  the  poor  in  such  a  manner  that  they  shall  not 
be  put  to  shame. 

Of   mean    exterior,  this    noble    soul,  whose 


iv.  CUMBERLAND'S  "  ^HE  JEW."  59 


light  illuminates  so  many  a  dark  and  cheerless 
life,  is  content  to  be  misapprehended.  He  is  one 
of  those  heroes  of  humanity,  who  do  their  work 
well,  because  they  niust,  seeking  no  other  ap- 
plause than  that  of  an  approving  conscience. 
This  man  the  world  misjudges,  being  guided  by 
outward  appearances,  as  he  himself  says  :  "  The 
world  knows  no  great  deal  of  me.  I  live  spar- 
ingly and  labor  hard  ;  therefore,  I  am  called  a 
miser  —  I  can  not  help  it  —  an  uncharitable  dog, 
I  must  endure  it;  a  blood-sucker,  an  extor- 
tioner, a  Shylock  —  hard  names,  but  what  can 
a  poor  Jew  say  in  return  if  a  Christian  abuses 
him  ?  We  have  no  abiding  place  on  earth,  no 
country,  no  home  ;  every  body  rails  at  us,  every 
body  flouts  us,  every  body  points  us  out  for 
their  very  game  and  mockery."  That  is  past. 
The  Jew  has  his  home  and  his  country  in  the 
free  lands  upon  which  the  spirit  of  liberty  has 
breathed. 

By  stating  his  lonely  and  solitary  condition 
thus  strongly,  the  philanthropy  of  Sheva  stands 
forth  the  more  vividly  —  a  man  without  a 
country,  yet  attached  to  the  land  wherein  he 
dwells  ;  a  man  misunderstood  and  reviled,  yet 
kindly  disposed  toward  the  helpless,  upon  whose 
heads  he  will  not  visit  the  sins  of  his  detractors. 
See  what  a  difference  between  this  conception 
and  that  of  Shylock.  As  remarkable  an  advance 
as  Shylock  showed  over  Barabbas,  a  still  greater 
and  more  notable  advance  is  Sheva  over  Shy- 


60  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

lockc  Shylock  is  reviled,  abused,  mocked, 
scorned,  and  he  harbors  plans  of  revenge. 
Sheva  is  reviled,  abused,  mocked,  scorned,  and 
he  is  not  deterred  from  entertaining  and  fulfill- 
ing plans  of  benevolence.  A  different  spirit 
was  working.  The  Jew  was  coming  to  be  bet- 
ter understood.  Kindlier  sentiments  were  en- 
tertained toward  him.  One  of  the  chief  elements 
of  the  Jewish  character,  that  of  charity,  was 
grasped  by  the  author  of  this  play  and  elabo- 
rated. Shylock  is  the  embodiment  of  the  fierce 
spirit  of  revenge,  Sheva  of  the  gentle  spirit  of 
benevolence.  But,  being  misunderstood  and 
wrongly  placed,  he  states  the  case  strongly. 
The  world  knows  him  not.  Full  emancipation 
has  come,  and  we  still  ask,  Does  not  the  world 
judge  the  Jew  harshly  even  now  ?  Does  not  the 
world  judge  without  knowledge  ?  The  spirit  of 
intolerance  in  theory  exists  no  longer,  in  practice 
it  does.  We  know  that  the  feelings  of  fifteen 
centuries,  handed  down  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, do  not  die  out  so  quickly;  prejudice 
still  lurks.  It  breaks  forth  every  once  in  a 
while,  to  the  shame  of  the  time  and  its  peoplea 
True,  it  can  no  longer  be  said  with  Sheva,  "  they 
are  railed  at,  flouted,  mocked  publicly,"  but  the 
spirit  of  the  great  and  free  minds,  the  Lessings 
and  the  Mirabeaus,  the  Washingtons  and  the 
Jeffersons,  the  Macaulays  and  the  Gladstones, 
must  become  much  more  prevailing,  ere  it  can 
truly  be  said  that  not  even  in  thought  do  medi- 


61 

eval  prejudices  exist.  Knowledge,  not  blinded 
by  passion  or  envy,  can  alone  overcome  them — 
recognition  of  the  true  status  of  the  Jew, 
neither  undervaluing  nor  overestimating  him. 
That  is  all  that  is  asked  for — to  judge  him  as 
other  men  are  judged,  to  feel  that  he  is  a  man 
of  and  among  men. 

Sheva  is  approached  by  Frederick  Bertram, 
who  asks  that  he  lend  him  three  hundred 
pounds,  for  he  can  obtain  naught  from  his 
father»  Sheva  promises  to  lend  him  this  sum. 
When  left  alone  he  seems  to  lament  his  promise, 
but  stops  short  and  soliloquizes  thus : 

"  But  soft,  a  word,  friend  Sheva !  Art  thou 
not  rich  ?  Monstrous  rich  ?  Abominably  rich  ? 
And  yet  thou  livest  on  a  crust !  Be  it  so ;  thou 
dost  stint  thine  appetites  to  pamper  thine  affec- 
tions ;  thou  dost  make  .thyself  to  live  in  poverty 
that  the  poor  may  live  in  plenty." 

Upon  his  performing  some  kind  act,  Charles 
says  to  him  in  surprise :  "  Thou  hast  affections, 
feelings,  charities."  Sheva  gives  an  answer  re- 
minding of  Terrence's  famous  phrase,  "  I  am  a 
man,  nothing  that  is  human  is  indifferent  to 
me."  Sheva' s  reply  is,  "  I  am  a  man,  sir;  call  me 
how  you  please."  And  he  is  answered,  "  I'll 
call  you  Christian  then,  and  this  proud  merchant 
Jew;"  whereupon  he  finely  says,  "I  shall  not 
thank  you  for  that  compliment." 

A  magnificent  reply  and  rebuke  truly.  It 
seems  that  it  was  and  still  is  the  custom  to  call 


62  THE    JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

every  thing  good  Christian  ;  a  good  life  is  desig- 
nated a  Christian  life ;  a  good  deed,  a  Christian 
deed ;  a  good  man,  a  Christian  man.  Even  when 
it  is  wished  to  compliment  Jews  highly,  it  is  said 
that  they  show  Christian  charity,  or  speak 
Christian  words. 

While  I  do  not  for  a  moment  controvert  the 
claims  of  Christianity  to  goodness  when  it  is 
carried  out  in  the  true  spirit,  as  little  as  I 
would  contradict  the  purity  of  any  upright  sys- 
tem of  life  and  of  morals,  still  we,  who  are  in 
religion  Jews,  say  with  Sheva,  in  his  finely 
turned  phrase,  in  good  works,  "  We  will  not 
thank  you  to  call  us  Christians,"  for  our  good 
deeds  have  a  hasis  many  centuries  older  than 
Christianity,  a  basis  in  the  words  of  our  writings. 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself," 
"  Thou  shalt  open  wide  thy  hand  to  the  poor 
and  needy ; "  in  the  phrases,  "  Happy  is  he  that 
careth  for  the  poor,"  "  He  that  giveth  to  the 
poor,  lendeth  to  the  Lord,"  and  in  many 
sentences  of  similar  import  scattered  through 
the  Jewish  writings.  Good  deeds  are  not  pecu- 
liarly Christian,  nor  Jewish,  nor  Mohammedan, 
nor  Buddhistic,  they  are  of  man,  and  when 
Sheva  says :  "  I  am  a  man,  call  me  how  you 
please,"  his  thought  is  broad  and  all  comprehen- 
sive. His  words  embody  the  spirit  of  humanity, 
that  true  non-sectarian  spirit  which  is  by  no 
means  universal,  nor  even  understood — that  can 


63 

look  upon  God,  not  as  the  Christian's  God,  nor 
the  Jew's  God,  but  humanity's  God. 

This  noble  heart,  beating  beneath  an  ignoble 
exterior,  Ratcliffe  learns  to  appreciate ;  the 
heart  which  Sheva  has  shown  to  no  man,  and 
which  he  does  not  carry  in  his  hand.  When  he 
is  asked  why  he  can  spare  so  little  to  himself, 
being  so  charitable  to  others,  he  replies  that  it 
is  his  purpose  to  do  all  the  possible  good  while 
he  lives,  and  repay  the  debt  of  gratitude  when 
he  dies.  The  true  spirit  of  charity  rules  this 
man,  for  when  he  gives  Frederick  the  three 
hundred  pounds,  to  make  the  acceptance  easy, 
he  causes  it  to  appear  that  a  favor  is  done  him 
by  Frederick's  taking  the  money  0  "  I  pray  you 
take  them,,  Why  will  you  be  so  hard  with  a 
poor  Jew  as  to  refuse  him  a  good  bargain,  when 
you  know  he  loves  to  lay  his  money  out  to  profit 
and  advantage  ?  "  The  profit  and  advantage  to 
which  he  laid  out  his  money  was  charity,  and 
the  interest  he  reaped  on  the  principal  was  the 
good  it  brought  to  others.  Could  it  be  more 
beautifully  put ;  making  it  appear  a  favor  to  him 
that  the  other  should  take  his  money  ? 

Sir  Stephen  is  told  that  Sheva  is  secretly  very 
charitablee  He  can  not  believe  it.  Sheva  is  ac- 
cused and  maligned  by  Sir  Stephen  for  giving 
his  son  money,  is  called  a  villain  for  upholding 
the  son  against  the  father  In  answer,  one  of 
those  noble  sentiments  is  again  uttered :  "  I  do 
uphold  the  son,  but  not  against  the  father0  It  is 


64  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

not  natural  to  suppose  the  father  and  the  op- 
pressor one  and  the  same  person.  I  did  see  your 
son  struck  down  to  the  ground  with  sorrow,  cut 
to  the  heart*  I  did  not  stop  to  ask  whose  hand 
had  laid  him  low ;  I  gave  him  mine  and  raised 
him  up0"  Sir  Stephen,  in  amazement  says: 
"  You,  you  talk  of  charity  ? "  And  he  is 
answered :  "I  do  not  talk  of  it,  I  feel  itu" 
Deeds,  not  words,  this  Jew  is  powerful  in. 

When  he  learns  that  money  alone  is  necessary 
to  heal  the  breach,  satisfy  Sir  Stephen,  and 
make  all  happy,  he  deposits  ten  thousand  pounds 
in  the  name  of  Ratcliffe's  sister,  the  wife  of 
Frederick.  The  paper  by  which  this  sum  was 
made  over  is  shown  to  Sir  Stephen,  the  father. 
He  is  thunderstruck,  he  can  not  conceive  that  a 
Jew  can  even  lend  a  small  sum  without  the  de- 
sire of  doubling.  Upon  his  expressing  such 
thoughts,  Sheva  answers  in  one  of  the  finest  pas- 
sages of  the  play  : 

"  What  has  Sheva  done  to  be  called  a  villain  ? 
I  am  a  Jew  ;  what  then  ?  Is  that  a  reason  none 
of  my  tribe  should  have  a  sense  of  pity  ?  You 
have  no  great  deal  of  pity  yourself,  but  I  do 
know  many  noble  British  merchants  that  do 
abound  in  pity,  therefore,  I  do  not  abuse  your 
tribe,"  Here  is  expressed  the  same  thought  we 
have  met  with  before,  and  whose  importance 
seems  to  be  widely  and  generally  recognizedo 
Every  writer,  Christian  and  Jewish,  who  has 
spoken  for  the  Jews  has  reiterated  it ;  as  we 


ivu  CUMBERLAND'S  "  THE  JEW."  65 

have  met  it  before,  so  shall  we  meet  it  again. 
Does  prejudice  still  exist  ?  We  can  trace  it  to 
this  as  one  of  the  leading  causes.  One  is  made 
responsible  for  all,  and  all  for  one«  If  one  Jew 
commits  a  wrong,  all  are  blamed;  if  one  hun- 
dred Jews  do  good,  only  the  hundred  individuals 
receive  credit  therefore  What  holds  good  in 
the  one  case,  must  hold  good  in  the  other.  The 
evil  as  well  as  the  good  in  individuals  may  not 
be  set  to  the  account  of  communities,  among 
whom  the  individual  is  not  even  known.  Paul 
and  Iscariot  were  both  Jews,  but  many  a  pious 
Christian  who  still  execrates  the  nation  from 
whom  the  betrayer  of  his  master  sprung,  seems 
to  forget  altogether  that  of  the  same  nation, 
Paul,  the  real  founder  of  their  religion,  was  one., 
The  evil,  be  it  ever  so  small,  is  remembered  ;  the 
good,  be  it  ever  so  great,  is  forgotten.  If  Jews 
there  are,  who  reach  not  the  standard  of  right- 
eousness, it  is  not  as  Jews  that  they  are  sucho 
As  little  do  we  lay  to  the  blame  of  Christianity 
all  the  villainy  of  church  members,  Sunday- 
school  superintendents  and  teachers,  who  in 
great  numbers  seek  refuge  in  the  land  of  safety 
beyond  the  border.  Let  the  reproach  be  cast 
where  it  belongs.  The  teachings  of  religion 
pure,  can  produce  but  good ;  the  perversity  of 
man,  acting  in  contrariety  to  those  teachings, 
produces  the  evil.  No  community  at  large  can 
be  responsible  for  the  acts  of  every  individual, 
Now,  that  his  son's  wife  has  10,000  pounds, 


66  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

Sir  Stephen  is  ready  to  forgive  and  clasp  both 
to  his  heart.  And  when  all  praise  Sheva' s  mu- 
nificence, he  says :  "  Do  not  talk  of  my  bounty, 
I  do  never  give  away  for  bounty's  sake.  If  pity 
wrings  my  heart  whether  I  will  or  not,  then  do 
I  give.  How  can  I  help  it  ?" 

It  is  only  now,  after  he  has  done  all  this  kind- 
ness, that  he  learns  that  his  early  preserver  was 
Ratcliffe's  father.  "  I  did  always  think  when  I 
did  heap  up  my  moneys  with  such  pain  and  labor, 
that  I  would  find  a  use  for  them  at  last."  The 
10,000  pounds  he  has  made  over  to  Ratcliffe's 
sister  without  her  knowledge,  and  when  Sir 
Stephen  asks  her  about  the  money,  she  disclaims 
knowing  any  thing  about  it,  and  the  merchant 
concludes  that  he  has  been  deceived,  but  later 
he  learns  better,  when  Katcliffe  brings  Sheva 
forward  with  the  words :  "  This  is  the  man 
.  .  .  the  widow's  friend,  the  orphan's  father, 
the  poor  man's  protector,  the  universal  philan- 
thropist." "  Hush,  hush,"  pleads  Sheva.  "  You 
make  me  hide  my  face.  Enough,  enough.  I 
pray  you  spare  me.  I  am  not  used  to  hear  the 
voice  of  praise,  and  it  oppresses  me."  And  the 
last  words  of  this  "universal  philanthropist," 
after  he  has  declared  his  intention  of  making 
Ratcliffe  his  heir,  are : 

"  I  do  not  bury  it  (his  money)  in  a  synagogue, 
or  any  other  pile.  I  do  not  waste  it  upon  vanity 
or  public  works.  I  leave  it  to  a  charitable  heir, 
and  build  my  hospital  in  the  human  heart." 


iv.  CUMBERLAND'S  "THE  JEW."  67 

This  is  the  noble  character  drawn  by  an  En- 
glish writer  of  the  past  century ;  all  honor  to  him 
that  he  could,  in  conception,  anticipate  the  com- 
plete vindication  of  the  Jew  in  that  country 
during  the  past  few  decades.  We  can  almost 
forgive  the  heinousness  of  Barabbas  when  we 
contrast  therewith  the  nobility  of  Sheva.  With- 
out one  living  blood  relative,  upon  whom  to 
lavish  affection,  or  from  whom  to  receive  marks 
of  love,  his  large  nature  goes  far  beyond  the 
narrow  limits  of  relationship,  of  religion,  of 
tribe,  and  his  heart  beats  for  humanity.  To 
look  him  in  the  face  is  to  see  nothing  of  his 
heart.  He  is  covered  with  contumely  and  in- 
sult, yet  he  grows  not  bitter,  nor  makes  man- 
kind responsible  for  individual  doings. 

He  is  a  Jew  at  heart ;  has  learned  well  the 
lessons  of  his  religion — "he  is  merciful  to  all 
mankind ;"  he  harbors  no  ill-will ;  "  he  can  for- 
give his  enemy,  much  more  his  friend ;"  he  for- 
gets no  deed  of  kindness,  but  the  feeling  of 
gratitude,  deep-seated  in  his  heart,  makes  him 
happy  when  he  can  aid  the  family  of  his  bene- 
factor. He  is  maligned  by  the  proud  and  hard 
merchant,  but  yet  he  aids  the  son  when  in  need. 
He  revenges  himself  for  the  harsh  language 
used  and  the  cruel  treatment  to  which  he  is  sub- 
jected by  doing  good.  A  pure,  unselfish  spirit, 
great,  truly  great,  but  yet  content  to  be  so 
humble.  The  world  shall  never  know  that  so 
bright  a  spirit  dwelt  upon  it,  and  that,  too,  in- 


68  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

cased  within  the  then  considered  despicable  body 
of  an  unbelieving  Jew;  for  he  sighs  not  for 
monuments  that  shall  emblazon  his  name,  but 
he  "builds  his  hospital  in  the  human  heart." 
A  powerful  lesson  the  author  of  this  play  taught  ; 
powerful  indeed  in  his  day,  and  none  the  less  so 
in  ours.  Aye,  we  may  say,  he  spoke  a  word 
wonderful  at  that  time,  and  which  the  educa- 
tion of  a  century  has  not  succeeded  in  instilling 
into  the  masses;  and  that  powerful  lesson  is, 
that  a  man's  creed  does  not  condemn  him.  To 
the  Christian  of  his  time  he  said,  a  Jew  can  be 
noble  as  well  as  a  Christian. 

"  Belief  is  not  the  criterion  of  virtue,  for  if 
it  were  such,  and  that  belief  exclusively  Christian, 
what  a  small  section  of  philanthropists  would 
there  be  to  mitigate  the  sorrows  of  this  harsh 
world,  even  if  every  confessor  were  a  Christian." 

It  may  be  argued  that  this  character  is  over- 
drawn, that  as  Barabbas  is  impossible  in  wicked- 
ness, so  is  Sheva  impossible  in  goodness.  That 
such  characters  are  rare,  exceedingly  rare,  we 
must  grant;  but  they  are  not  impossibilities. 
Suppose,  however,  for  argument's  sake,  that  as 
here  portrayed,  the  character  is  exaggerated ; 
that  even  considering  the  goodness  of  heart 
possible,  the  liberality  of  spirit  shown  which 
considers  man  as  man  without  the  attributes  of 
any  special  character  of  belief  or  religion,  is  un- 
thinkable in  a  Jew  of  that  day,  it  was  a  neces- 
sity for  the  author  to  bring  forward  such  a  fig- 


Iv.  CUMBERLAND'S  "THE  JEW."  69 

lire  of  light.  The  contrast  to  the  conventional 
presentation  must  be  great,  to  leave  the  proper 
effect.  The  popular  mind  requires  strong  light 
to  be  thrown  upon  it  to  be  impressed.  So  beau- 
tiful a  character  standing  forth  from  the  dark 
back-ground  formed  by  the  hardness  of  the 
Christian  merchant,  could  not  fail  to  have  a  salu- 
tary effect.  Marlowe  had  inflamed  the  populace 
by  his  villain  Jew;  Cumberland  interested  it 
by  his  Jew  benevolent.  With  a  little  pruning 
down,  the  character  can  stand  as  the  portrayal 
of  a  noble,  large-souled  man,  which  the  Jew 
Sheva  aims  to  be.  Narrow  the  Jew  is  not  any 
longer.  He  is  cosmopolitan,  the  universal  citi- 
zen. His  religion  is  broad,  one  God,  and  one 
humanity.  His  sympathies  are  broad  as  his  re- 
ligion. He  is,  to  repeat  the  words  of  Sheva, 
"  A  man,  call  him  how  you  will." 


70  THE  JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 


Y.    SCOTT'S  "IVASTHOE." 

Of  all  the  works  of  fiction  wherein  a  Jew  is 
made  to  play  a  prominent  r6le,  there  is  none, 
with  the  exception  of  Shakespeare's  play,  that 
has  been  as  widely  read  as  the  romantic  tale  of 
Sir  Walter  Scott.  Isaac  of  York  is  known  to 
hundreds  who  have  never  read  a  line  of  Jewish 
history,  and  Rebecca  has  excited  admiration  and 
sympathy  among  thousands  to  whom  such  a 
portrayal  of  a  Jewess  must  have  appeared  ideal 
and  highly  colored,  indeed,  permissible  in  fiction, 
but  impossible  in  fact. 

That  the  writer  was  in  sympathy  with  his 
subject  is  evident.  There  are  passages  which, 
for  truthful  presentation  and  for  fervency,  could 
not  have  been  excelled  by  a  son  of  Israel  wish- 
ing to  enlist  interest  in  the  past  sufferings  of  his 
people.  I  will  not  speak  of  the  charm  of  the 
novel  nor  of  its  merit  as  a  work  of  art ;  what 
concerns  us  are  the  Jewish  passages,  in  how  far 
are  they  true,  in  how  far  overdrawn,  in  how  far 
deficient.  It  was  not  only  the  interest  which 
romance  threw  over  the  subject  that  could  have 
induced  the  great  Scottish  writer  to  portray 
those  characters.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but 
ythat  sympathy  with  an  oppressed  people  who, 
in  his  own  land  in  that  late  year  wherein  he 


71 

lived,  still  suffered  under  civil  disabilities,  had 
much  to  do  with  the  production  of  the  work, 
for  his  was  a  peculiarly  generous  nature,  and 
throughout  his  writings,  the  sympathies  of  the 
reader  are  always  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the 
weaker  party.  That  the  tale  has  some  founda- 
tion of  this  kind,  both  in  sympathy  and  in  fact, 
we  learn  from  an  authentic  notice  which  has 
been  left  us  of  the  reason  why  Scott  wrote  a 
novel  wherein  Jews  played  such  important 
roles.  A  Mrs.  Skene,  whose  husband  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  the  poet-novelist,  gives  the 
following  as  the  cause  of  the  introduction  of 
Isaac  and  Rebecca  into  the  tale  :  "  Mr.  Skene 
sitting  by  his  (Scott's)  bedside,  and  trying  to 
amuse  him  as  well  as  he  could  in  the  intervals 
of  pain,  happened  to  get  on  the  subject  of  the 
Jews,  as  he  had  observed  them  when  he  spent 
some  time  in  Germany  in  his  youth.  Their 
situation  had  naturally  made  a  strong  im- 
pression, for  in  those  days  they  retained  their 
dresa  and  manners  entire,  and  were  treated  with 
considerable  austerity  by  their  Christian  neigh- 
bors, being  still  locked  up  at  night  in  their  own 
quarter  by  great  gates,  and  Mr.  Skene,  partly  in 
seriousness  and  partly  from  the  mere  wish  to 
turn  hia  mind  at  that  moment  upon  something 
that  might  occupy  and  divert  it,  suggested  that 
a  group  of  Jews  would  be  an  interesting  feature 
if  he  could  bring  them  into  his  next  novel. 
Upon  the  appearance  of  Ivanhoe,  he  reminded 


72  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

Mr.  Skene  of  the  conversation,  and  said  you  will 
find  the  book  owes  not  a  little  to  your  German 
reminiscences."  (Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  pp. 
77-78.) 

By  taking  so  early  a  period  as  the  time  of  the 
action,  Scott  not  only  entered  into  his  own  pe- 
culiar province,  the  description  of  the  days  of 
romance  and  chivalry,  but  by  showing  in  this 
popular  form  the  origins  of  some  of  the  wrongs 
of  the  Jews,  how  they  were  compelled,  well  nigh 
driven,  to  become  what  they  were,  how  the  fault 
lay  with  their  oppressors,  he  could  better  enlist 
the  sympathy  of  the  thinking  classes  than  by 
merely  offering  a  picture  of  the  Jews  as  they 
were  in  his  day.  The  time  of  action  is  toward 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  when,  in  the  ab- 
sence and  captivity  of  Richard  the  Lion-hearted, 
his  brother  John  was  meditating  a  seizure  of  the 
throne.  The  position  of  the  Jews  in  England  at 
this  time  was  much  like  that  of  their  brethren  in 
Central  Europe.  They  had  been  in  the  country 
a  long  time,  had  acquired  wealth,  were  used  by  roy- 
alty and  nobility  as  sponges  to  be  pressed  dry  when- 
ever money  was  needed.  The  story  of  the  prince, 
who,  to  extort  money  from  a  Jew  unwilling  to  be 
thus  robbed,  had  tooth  after  tooth  extracted  from 
the  mouth  of  the  unhappy  victim  until  he  con- 
sented to  the  extortion,  is  suggestive  of  the  in- 
dignities to  which  these  people  were  subjected. 
There  was  a  special  tax  which  they  were  com- 
pelled to  pay,  but  with  all  that  they  throve,  for 


v.  SCOTT'S  "IVANHOE."  73 

Abraham    Ibn    Ezra,    the    renowned     Spanish 
scholar,    in    his    wanderings    through    Europe, 
visited   also   London   a   short    time  before    the 
period  whereof  we  speak,  and  he  found  there  a 
community,  prosperous  as  the  Jews  could  then 
well  be,  for  the  wholesale  persecutions  and  ex- 
pulsions which  became  prevalent  during  the  fol- 
lowing centuries  had  not  yet  been  inaugurated. 
But  the  little  tranquillity  they  had  enjoyed  was 
not  for  long.     They  had  no  home :  "  except,  per- 
haps, the  flying  fish,  there  was  no  race  on  earth, 
in  the  air,  or  in  the  waters,  who  were  the  objects 
of  such  unremitting,  general,  relentless  persecu- 
tion as  the  Jews  of  this  period.     Upon  the  slight- 
est and  most  unreasonable  pretenses,  as  well  as 
upon  accusations  the  most  absurd  and  ground- 
less, their  persons  and  property  were  exposed  to 
every  whim  of  popular  fury."     These  few  words 
show  that  in  the  author  of  this  work  we  have  one 
who  knew  whereof  he  spoke.     He  well  under- 
stood the  position  of  the  devoted  people.     I  need 
not  here  expatiate  upon  all  the  cruelties  to  which 
they  were  subjected ;  how,  by  a  systematic  course, 
and    by  frequent    decrees    the    popular  hatred 
toward  them  was  fostered ;  how  it  was  forbidden 
Christians  to  associate  with  them,  as  though  they 
had  been  accursed ;  how  none  were  permitted  to 
eat  or  drink  with  them;   how  Christians  were 
prohibited  to   employ  Jewish  physicians;   how 
they   dared   not   appear   on  the   streets   during 
Holy  Week,  for  fear  of  bodily  violence;   how 


74  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

they  were  compelled  to  submit  to  all  indignities 
imaginable,  were  set  upon  by  mobs,  robbed,  plun- 
dered, murdered.  All  that  has  often  been  told 
of  the  time  whereof  we  treat.  The  representa- 
tive of  such  treatment  in  our  tale  is  a  rich  Jew 
of  York,  who  is  portrayed,  as  in  former  in- 
stances in  the  case  of  Jewish  characters,  as  a 
usurer.  Here  Scott  also  seems  to  indorse  the  old 
thought  that  the  Jews  were  the  only  ones  en- 
gaged in  these  shameful  transactions.  To  again 
show  the  injustice  of  this  charge,  an  injustice 
which  can  not  be  too  often  or  too  strongly  in- 
sisted upon,  for  the  idea  is  so  general  and  wide- 
spread, it  will  be  apposite  to  quote  the  words 
of  an  English  historian,  who  says :  "  The  several 
statutes  made  to  prevent  usury  after  the  Jews 
had  been  expelled  from  the  kingdom  prove  it  to 
be  a  crime  in  no  way  peculiar  to  them."  Scott 
is  said  to  have  obtained  the  outlines  for  the 
character  of  Isaac  from  the  stray  hints  scattered 
here  and  there  in  the  chronicles  of  Matthew 
Paris  and  other  early  writers  about  a  wealthy 
Jew,  Aaron  of  Lincoln,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
Henry  II. 

The  appearance  of  Isaac,  on  his  introduction 
into  the  house  of  Cedric  the  Saxon,  is  graph- 
ically described.  This  we  can  leave  to  the  vivid- 
ness of  the  imagination.  In  one  important  feat- 
ure of  the  dress,  however,  there  is  an  error,  and 
that  is  when  we  are  told  that  he  wore  a  high, 
square,  yellow  cap  of  a  peculiar  fashion,  assigned 


v.  SCOTT'S  "IVANHOE."  75 

to  his  nation  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Chris- 
tian. Scott,  usually  so  exact  in  his  historical 
notices,  is  here  at  fault.  It  may  not  he  known 
to  the  present  generation  that  formerly  the  Jews 
were  compelled  to  wear  a  distinguishing  mark, 
consisting  usually  of  a  piece  of  yellow  cloth  on 
the  garment,  and  a  peculiarly  shaped  hat,  that 
there  might  be  no  difficulty  in  designating 
them.  It  marked  them  as  targets  to  be  aimed  at. 
This  terrible  indignity  was  one  of  the  most 
shameful  to  which  they  have  ever  been  subjected. 
It  was  received  with  a  wail  of  bitterness  and  of 
anguish  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  the  other. 
Against  its  enforcement  the  Jews  struggled  in 
vain  with  might  and  main,  but  at  the  time  of 
which  Scott  wrote,  it  had  not  yet  been  instituted. 
It  was  the  infernal  device  of  Innocent  III.,  the 
bitter  opponent  of  any  thing  at  all  smacking  of 
heresy,  the  instigator  of  the  crusades  against 
the  Albigenses,  the  uncompromising  enemy  of 
the  Jews.  It  was  first  promulgated  by  him  at 
the  Fourth  Lateran  Council,  in  1215,  for  all 
Christendom ;  was  then  from  time  to  time  passed 
in  the  separate  ecclesiastical  councils  held  in  dif- 
ferent countries;  in  England,  at  the  Council  of 
Oxford,  in  the  year  1222.  So  we  may  imagine 
Isaac  as  yet  exempt  from  wearing  the  de- 
grading badge.  No  need  to  enter  into  a  de- 
tailed criticism  of  the  character  of  Isaac  :  he  pos- 
sesses but  little  strength  or  power;  "  he  is  but  a 
milder  Sbylock,  and  by  no  means  more  natural 


76  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

than  his  original."  It  is  not  he  that  enlists  sym- 
pathy ;  it  is  the  occasional  descriptions  and  ex- 
planations of  the  lot  of  the  Jews.  He  is  naught 
but  the  miser,  pure  and  simple,  trembling  for 
his  wealth ;  lying,  deceiving,  so  as  not  to  part 
with  his  hoard ;  scarcely  once,  in  all  his  varied  ex- 
clamations, does  he  rise  above  himself;  scarcely 
once  does  he  speak  of  the  sufferings  of  his  peo- 
ple; scarcely  once  does  he  resent  the  indigni- 
ties placed  upon  him  because  he  is  a  Jew — it  is 
only  as  the  guardian  of  his  treasures  that  he  is 
portrayed. 

In  one  notable  point  I  find  that  Scott,  in  this 
character,  has  shown  keen  observation,  and  that 
is  in  the  manner  in  which  Isaac  is  made  to  speak, 
in  short,  quick,  unconnected  sentences.  While 
the  Jews  dwelt  together  and  were  Jewish  in 
thought  as  in  all  else,  I  think  we  can  well  say 
that  a  characteristic  of  their  thought  was  its 
quickness.  They  thought  rapidly,  and  naturally 
this  would  appear  in  their  speech ;  the  thoughts 
crowded  so  that  often  before  one  sentence  was 
concluded  another  was  begun.  To  Isaac  is  as- 
cribed this  characteristic,  and  it  is  justly  given. 
Before  leaving  the  character,  let  me  refer  some- 
what at  length  to  the  one  instance  in  which  the 
man  rises  above  the  miser,  in  which  he  evinces 
pure  Jewish  feeling.  However  base,  however 
dark,  however  avaricious  the  Jewish  characters 
may  be  drawn,  still  all  authors  recognize  one 
beautiful  feature  in  their  lives.  Barabbas,  Shy- 


77 

lock,  Isaac,  all  love  their  daughters  with  all  the 
affection  of  which  they  were  capable.  The 
Jewish  home-life,  a  result,  and  the  only  good  re- 
sult of  the  evils  of  their  existence  has  been 
lauded  and  extolled  by  all ;  shut  off  from  every 
thing  else,  excluded  from  all  association  with  the 
external  world,  the  only  place  that  the  kindly 
feelings  could  take  root  and  flourish  was  among 
themselves,  in  their  homes.  Here  they  sought 
the  warmth  of  affection  which  was  elsewhere 
denied  them,  and  in  the  family  circle  found  their 
only  joy.  Of  this,  Isaac's  feelings  for  his 
daughter  are  exemplificatory.  Scott  has  well 
portrayed  this  love  for,  this  pride  in  his  daughter. 
This  is  his  one  redeeming  feature ;  here  he  rises 
above  himself.  The  heart  of  the  father  con- 
quers. He  becomes  at  this  time  admirable. 
Love  is  stronger  than  avarice.  When  he  learns 
that  his  child  is  in  danger,  even  to  him  money 
is  naught;  he  throws  off  the  cringing,  hypo- 
critical guise,  and  appears  in  all  the  strong  in- 
dignation, all  the  deep  anguish  of  natural  feel- 
ing of  a  father  for  his  child  threatened  with 
harm :  "  Take  all  that  you  have  asked,  Sir 
Knight,  take  ten  times  more — reduce  me  to  ruin 
and  beggary  if  thou  wilt — nay,  pierce  me  with 
thy  poinard,  broil  me  on  that  furnace,  spare  my 
daughter,  deliver  her  in  safety  and  honor.  As 
thou  art  born  of  woman,  save  the  honor  of  a 
helpless  maiden — she  is  the  image  of  my  de- 
ceased Rachael — she  is  the  last  of  six  pledges  of 


78  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

her  love.  Will  you  deprive  a  widowed  husband 
of  his  sole  remaining  comfort?  Will  you  re- 
duce the  father  to  the  wish  that  his  only  living 
child  were  laid  beside  her  dead  mother  in  the 
tomb  of  our  fathers  ?  "  In  this  alone  does  Isaac 

.  evince  noble  traits.  In  all  else  he  is  not  sug- 
gestive of  better  things.  It  is  as  if  the  author 
had  said,  this  is  an  aspect  of  character  made 
possible  by  the  circumstance  of  persecution  and 
degradation.  Look  now  upon  the  ideal  side  of 
the  Jewish  character — and  he  holds  up  the  pic- 
ture of  Rebecca.  Where  Isaac  utters  not  one 
word  on  the  religion,  Rebecca  is  the  Jewess  to 
the  core.  Isaac  is  the  result  of  the  intolerance 
v  of  centuries,  Rebecca  is  as  the  fair  rose  of  the 
purity  of  Judaism  untainted  and  unwithered, 
and  who  will  say  that  the  aroma  is  not  refresh-  j: 
ing  and  pure?  Rebecca,  "the  sweetest  charac-^ 
ter  in  the  whole  range  of  fiction,"  as  Thackeray 
puts  it,  is  a  beautiful  creation,  the  grace  and  in- 

v  terest  of  the  whole  story ;  a  mixture  of  womanly 
sweetness  and  heroic  strength,  of  maidenly 
modesty  and  conscious  worth.  With  a  knowl- 
edge of  her  unfortunate  condition,  because  she 
is  a  daughter  of  Israel,  her  attitude  toward 
those  whom  a  religion  triumphant  has  set  above 
her  is  one  of  "proud  humility,  as  though  she 
knew  in  her  mind  that  she  is  entitled  to  hold  a 
higher  rank  from  her  merit."  An  enthusiastic 
worshipper  of  her  God,  she  has  in  her  the  stuff 
of  a  martyr.  As  she  is  drawn  she  is  well  nigh 


v.  SCOTT'S  "IVANHOE."  79 

perfect,  impressing  all  with  whom  she  comes  into 
contact,  alike,  so  that  even  the  dull  swineherd, 
upon  leaving  her  house,  in  spite  of  his  ignorant 
prejudice  is  forced  to  exclaim :  "  This  is  no 
Jewess,  but  an  angel  from  heaven." 

Rebecca  stands  forth  prominently  in  the  tale, 
for  beauty  and  perfection  almost  on  a  par  with 
Shakespeare's  women.  Of  her  beauty  and  love- 
liness, which  on  her  appearance  at  the  tourna- 
ment, is  said  not  to  have  yielded  to  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  the  maidens  who  surrounded  her,  I  will 
not  speak.  All  the  extravagant  expressions  of 
praise  and  admiration  which  are  bestowed  on  her 
by  prince  and  noble  are  pleasing,  but  we  hurry  on 
to  discover  of  what  mettle  this  paragon  of  loveli- 
ness is  made.  She  is,  in  the  first  place,  intensely 
Jewish.  The  degradation  and  misery,  the  op- 
pression and  persecution,  the  thefts  and  extor- 
tions to  which  her  people  must  submit  are  borne 
with  resignation.  These  are  but  a  "sacrifice 
which  heaven  exacted  to  save  our  lives,"  and  she 
reminds  her  father,  who  so  bitterly  laments  the 
robberies  which  the  nobles  indulge  in  with  im- 
punity at  his  expense,  that  the  God  of  their 
fathers  has  since  blessed  his  store  and  gettings. 
Unfortunate  as  she  knows  the  Jews  are,  she  is 
not  one  to  merely  lament.  In  her  presence  her 
father  sinks  into  insignificance,  although  her  at- 
titude toward  him  is  always  of  profound  respect 
and  concern.  She  utters  the  truly  philosophical 
thought :  "  We  are  like  the  herb  which  flour- 


80  THE    JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

isheth  most  when  it  is  most  trampled  on."  To 
whatever  it  was  owing  it  is  a  profound  and 
wondrous  fact — a  miracle,  indeed — that  any 
of  the  Jews  remained,  especially  during  those 
terrible  days  of  the  crusades,  when  the  mohs 
were  exhorted  to  root  out  the  heretics  at  home, 
ere  they  marched  against  them  in  the  East, 
and  Jewish  hlood  flowed  in  streams,  and  mas- 
sacres were  of  well-nigh  daily  occurrence. 
For  this  wondrous  proof  of  God's  protection,  a 
pious  heart  like  that  of  Rebecca  was  truly  grate- 
ful. She  could  look  beyond  present  afflictions 
and  see  the  finger  of  Providence  guiding  the 
course  of  her  people.  The  trust  in  God  forsook 
her  not  in  the  most  trying  times,  even  as  in  the 
real  trials  and  afflictions  of  the  bitter  and 
troubled  existence  of  the  Jews  of  those  days,  it 
forsook  not  her  sisters,  many  of  whom  met 
death  rather  than  dishonor;  many  of  whom, 
maiden  and  wife,  young  women  and  old,  ascended 
the  burning  pyre,  or  thrust  the  cold  steel  into 
their  bosoms,  or  cast  themselves  into  the  flow- 
ing streams,  when  these  were  the  only  alterna- 
tives left  them  to  forsaking  the  religion  of  their 
fathers.  The  history  of  the  women  of  Israel  of 
those  days  is  a  wondrous  chronicle — -that  history 
which  details  acts  heroic  and  self-sacrificing, 
acts  of  the  martyr.  In  many  instances  were 
they  the  preservers  of  deep  and  holy  religious 
fervor.  Rebecca's  strength  and  resignation  are 


81 

not  overdrawn ;  they  were  equaled  by  the  fair 
daughters  and  pious  mothers  of  scattered  Israel. 

Rebecca  is  first  brought  into  prominent  con- 
nection with  the  other  personages  of  the  tale 
when  she  orders  the  wounded  Ivanhoe,  who  has 
been  so  kind  to  her  father,  to  be  removed  from 
the  lists  to  her  house,  attends  to  his  wounds  and 
heals  him.  She  is  one  of  the  wise  and  learned. 
Her  charms  are  heightened  by  the  powers  of  a 
noble  mind.  To  many,  the  whole  description  of 
Rebecca,  particularly  this  appertaining  to  her 
influence  and  her  learning,  without  doubt,  ap- 
pears to  be  much  exaggerated,  and  but  the  gener- 
ous fancy  of  a  poet's  mind ;  for  it  has  been  so  often 
and  so  repeatedly  asserted  that  among  the  Jews 
woman  held  a  minor  position  but  little  above  that 
of  a  slave,  that  we  may  well  devote  a  little  space 
to  show  that  a  woman  of  attainments  and  position 
such  as  are  attributed  to  Rebecca,  was  not  only 
a  possibility,  but  an  actuality  among  the  Jews. 
That  she  was  denied  certain  legal  and  ceremonial 
rights  which  were  granted  only  to  man,  did  not 
prevent  her  from  acquiring  .1  most  beneficial  in- 
fluence in  the  home,  and  becoming  the  guiding 
spirit  of  much  that  was  best  and  purest.  It  did 
not  hinder  her  from  cultivating  her  mind  and 
exercising  her  powers  of  thought. 

I  will  not  quote  the  hundred  and  one  maxims 
and  sayings  which  can  be  culled  from  Jewish 
writings,  ancient  and  medieval,  designating  the 
high  opinion  held  of  her  worth,  nor  point  to 


82  THE  JEW   IN   ENGLISH  FICTION. 

the  many  figures  which  stand  forth  so  promi- 
nently from  the  pages  of  the  Bible,  and  with 
which  all  are  familiar.  I  will  not  speak  of 
the  learned  women  that  the  Talmud  mentions, 
such  as  Beruriah  and  Emma  Shalom,  but  will  only 
point  out  that  in  the  darkest  days,  when  the  Jews 
were  most  oppressed,  during  these  times  wherein 
/  our  tale  runs  and  later,  the  Jewish  women  in 
learning  and  influence  held  a  lofty  position. 
There  are  mentioned  as  learned  and  highly  culti- 
vated minds  in  France,  Belletta  in  the  eleventh, 
Hanna  in  the  twelfth  century  ;  in  France  likewise 
dwelt  the  family  of  Rashi,  the  great  commentator 
— he  had  no  sons,  only  daughters ;  all  were  learned 
(one  of  them  we  know  by  the  name  of  Belle- 
jeune),  as  were  also  his  two  granddaughters, 
Miriam  and  Anna.  Miriam  Shapira  delivered 
lectures  at  a  college  which  many  students  at- 
tended. Deborah  Ascarelli  and  Sarah  Copia 
Sullam  were  poetesses  of  no  mean  merit,  and 
the  name  of  Donna  Garcia  Mendes  need  only  be 
mentioned  to  show  that  woman  was  also  con- 
sulted in  external  affairs,  and  was  a  patron  of 
learning,  as  the  praises  sung  of  her  by  those 
who  knew  her,  amply  testify.  A  Rebecca  in 
mind  was  then  a  possibility;  there  was  noth- 
ing in  the  prejudices  of  her  people,  as  has  been 
falsely  represented,  to  prevent  this.  Her  skill  in 
medicine  comes  to  Ivanhoe  in  good  stead.  But 
here,  in  her  relation  to  Ivanhoe,  we  find  an  in- 
congruity with  the  Jewish  character.  Leaving 


v.  SCOTT'S  "  IVANHOE."  83 

aside  now  all  the  romantic  incidents,  the  possi- 
bility of  her  having  appeared  at  the  tournament, 
as  is  described,  or  the  removal  of  Ivanhoe,  the 
wounded  knight,  to  her  home,  or  of  the  likeli- 
hood of  a  Jewish  maiden,  no  matter  what  her 
skill  or  gratitude,  attending  a  Christian  knight ; 
granting  even  that,  under  very  extraordinary 
circumstances,  such  things  might  be,  yet  it  is  not 
at  all  probable  that  Rebecca,  the  fervent  Jewess, 
so  deeply  conscious  of  the  wrongs  of  her  people, 
knowing  so  well  the  sentiments  entertained 
toward  her  own  by  even  the  best  of  Christians, 
fully  aware  that  they  were  looked  upon  as 
damned,  as  unfit  to  be  associated  with — aye,  it  is 
impossible  that  Rebecca,  as  such  a  one,  could 
have  entertained  even  the  slightest  tender  feeling 
for  Ivanhoe  beyond  that  of  sympathy  for  his  suf- 
ferings. He  is  correctly  pictured  as  turning  away 
and  growing  very  cold  and  distant  the  instant 
he  learns  she  is  a  Jewess;  she  is,  indeed,  repre- 
sented as  struggling  against  the  feeling  of  love 
that  moved  her  toward  the  knight :  "  I  will  tear 
this  folly  from  my  heart,  though  every  fiber 
bleeds  as  I  rend  it  away."  But  such  a  feeling 
could  not  even  have  arisen.  With  Jessica,  light 
and  frivolous,  it  was  possible;  with  Rebecca, 
earnest,  deep  feeling,  so  Jewish  in  every  thought, 
never  under  any  circumstances.  The  novelist 
felt  this  at  least,  in  so  far  that  the  two  are  not 
united,  as  he  says  in  his  preface :  "  The  preju- 
dices of  the  age  rendered  such  a  union  almost 


84  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

impossible."  But  had  he  truly  portrayed  Jew- 
ish feeling  of  that  time,  not  even  by  a  syllable 
would  he  have  indicated  that  any  passion  had 
sprung  up,  just  as  little  as  it  was  in  the  case  of 
Ivanhoe.  Prejudice  on  the  one  side,  bitter 
wrong  on  the  other,  on  the  part  of  sincere 
Christian  and  Jew,  should  have  taught  the  ab- 
surdity of  the  entertainment  of  such  a  notion. 
The  abyss  that  separated  them  was  too  broad 
for  them  ever  to  clasp  hands  across  it.  The 
conference,  however,  between  Ivanhoe  and  Re- 
becca, while  she  acts  as  his  physician,  is  an  in- 
structive one.  The  author  reverts  to  the  fact 
that  the  Jews  were  skilled  in  the  science  of 
medicine — which  is  very  true,  as  many  great 
physicians  of  those  days  were  Jews  or  Arabs. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Church,  in  many 
decrees,  forbade  the  faithful  to  employ  Jewish 
physicians,  yet  there  was  many  a  Christian  who 
preferred  to  risk  the  salvation  of  his  soul  by  in- 
trusting his  body  to  the  skill  of  the  medical 
science  of  the  Jews,  than  to  lose  his  life  by  re- 
lying upon  the  efficacy  of  relics  and  ghostly 
signs  made  by  monks.  After  healing  Ivanhoe, 
the  only  reward  she  asks  is  that  he  shall  "  be- 
lieve henceforth,  that  a  Jew  may  do  good 
service  to  a  Christian  without  desiring  other 
guerdon  than  the  blessing  of  the  great  Father 
who  made  both  Jew  and  Gentile." 

I  need  not  further  detail  the  plot  of  the  novel ; 
how  Rebecca,  in  the  party  of  Cedric,  the  Saxon> 


v.  SCOTT'S  "IVANHOE."  85 

was  captured  and  given  over  to  the  Knight 
Templar ;  the  vivid  description  of  the  storming 
of  the  castle ;  the  intensely  dramatic  scenes  be- 
tween her  and  Bois  Guilbert ;  her  refusal  to  listen 
to  him,  preferring  death  to  union  with  him; 
the  trial,  at  which  she  was  accused  of  being  a 
sorceress,  that  by  her  arts  she  had  seduced  the 
Templar;  how  her  knowledge  of  medicine  is 
cited  as  a  proof  of  her  sorcery,  for  in  those  dark 
and  ignorant  days,  every  man  who  possessed 
knowledge  which  the  populace  could  not  com- 
prehend, was  regarded  as  a  wizard;  learning 
was  unnatural,  and  could  be  inspired  only  by  the 
powers  of  the  evil.  I  need  not  tell  of  the  con- 
demnation, the  final  result.  Many  a  noble  and 
beautiful  word  does  she  speak  in  her  conversa- 
tion with  the  Templar :  "  Thou  knowest  not  the 
heart  of  woman  ;  not  in  thy  fiercest  battles  hast 
thou  displayed  more  of  thy  vaunted  courage 
than  has  been  shown  by  woman  when  called 
upon  to  suffer  by  affection  and  duty."  The 
most  fervent  expression  of  the  author  of  the 
position  of  some  of  the  Jews  he  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  Rebecca,  when,  in  answer  to  the  taunt 
that  the  Jews  are  degraded,  as  conversant  with 
ingot  and  shekel,  instead  of  spear  and  shield, 
she  bursts  forth  :  "  Thou  hast  spoken  the  Jew 
as  the  persecution  of  such  as  thou  art  has  made 
him.  Industry  has  opened  to  him  the  only 
road  to  power  and  influence  which  oppression 
has  left  unbarred.  Read  the  ancient  history  of 


86  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

the  people  of  God,  and  tell  me  if  those  by 
whom  Jehovah  wrought  such  marvels  among 
the  nations  were  then  a  people  of  misers  and 
usurers.  And  know,  proud  knight,  we  number 
names  among  us,  to  which  your  boasted  north- 
ern nobility  is  as  the  gourd  compared  with  the 
cedar.  Such  were  the  princes  of  Judah.  And 
there  are  those  among  them  now  who  shame 
not  such  high  descent,  and  such  shall  be  the 
daughter  of  Isaac,  the  son  of  Adoni-Kam." 
She  stood  the  test.  One  so  thoroughly  reliant 
on  God  could  not  but  wish  well  to  all,  and  the 
last  words  she  speaks  are  those  addressed  to 
Ivanhoe's  bride  :  "  May  he  who  made  both  Jew 
and  Christian  shower  down  on  you  his  choicest 
blessings." 

No  character  has  ever  received  greater  enco- 
miums than  those  passed  on  Rebecca,  and  truly 
no  figure  nobler  in  every  way  has  been  drawn. 
It  is  said  that  Scott  based  his  presentation  on  a 
description  given  him  by  Washington  Irving,  of 
a  Philadelphia  Jewess,  Rebecca  Gratz.  This 
lady  Irving  had  met  at  the  death-bed  of  his  be- 
throthed,  and  had  been  much  impressed  with 
the  gentleness  and  beauty  of  her  character.  Of 
her  Scott  drew  an  ideal  portrait. 

Divest  Rebecca  of  her  romantic  surroundings, 
and  she,  as  herself,  stands  as  a  figure  of  pure 
and  true  womanhood ;  a  Jewess  in  feeling,  in 
sentiment,  in  religious  thought  she  is ;  her  resig- 
nation, bravery,  and  steadfastness  are  histori- 


v.  SCOTT'S  "IVANHOE.''  87 

cally  possible,  for  there  were  Jewish  maidens 
sufficient  in  those  days  who,  as  the  records  re- 
port, bore  suffering  as  resignedly,  as  bravely,  as 
steadfastly.  The  character  is  woven  in  the 
wreath  of  poetic  fancy ;  yet  the  separate  attri- 
butes ascribed  to  her  are  all  natural  and  wo- 
manly, and,  taken  all  in  all,  make  such  a  one  as 
we  could  conceive  the  highest  type  of  woman- 
hood to  be;  her  attachment  to  her  father,  her 
care  for  the  poor,  her  attention  to  the  wounded, 
her  proud  defiance  of  the  evil  doer,  her  enthu- 
siasm for  Israel's  past,  her  deep  piety,  her  trust 
in  God,  combine  to  produce  so  noble  a  woman, 
that  of  her  we  may  say : 

11  From  every  one, 

The  best  she  hath,  and  she,  of  all  compounded. 
Outsells  them  all." 


88  THE   JEW   IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 


VI.    DICKENS'S  "OLIVEK  TWIST"  AND 
"OUR  MUTUAL  FRIEND." 

It  has  always  appeared  strange  to  me  that  in 
many  instances,  when  the  great  English  writers 
and  fictionists  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  Jews, 
they  did  so  in  derogatory  terms,  and  classed 
them  with  the  lowest  elements  of  society.  Can 
it  he  that  they  were  wilfully  "blind,  or  that  they 
did  it  only  for  effect?  Surely  a  community 
which  is  represented  by  the  Montefiores,  Solo- 
mons, Goldsmids,  Magnus,  Jessels,  Cohens  and 
Rothschilds,  can  not  be  so  universally  degraded 
that,  when  an  especially  disagreeable  character 
is  desired,  he  is  described  in  unmistakable  terms 
as  one  of  this  body.  Carlyle  was  guilty  of  this 
in  his  Sartor  Resartus,  and  in  some  of  his 
later  productions.  Thackeray  designates  as 
Jews,  bailiffs  and  keepers  of  debtors'  prisons, 
personages  of  the  lowest  stamp,  and  has  dis- 
torted Scott's  beautiful  romance  by  a  silly  so- 
called  sequel,  in  which  his  hostile  feelings 
plainly  appear.  A  young  writer,  some  fifty 
years  ago,  after  having  achieved  phenomenal 
success  in  a  new  kind  of  literature,  "  The  Pick- 
wick Papers,"  presented  to  the  public  as  the 
second  production  of  his  genius  a  work  of  an 
entirely  different  nature,  a  sensational  story, 


VI.    DICKENS*  S    "  OLIVER   TWIST."  89 

"Oliver  Twist."  Here  and  there  appeared 
glimpses  of  the  humor  which  had  marked  his 
earlier  work,  but,  on  the  whole,  the  tale  was  cast 
in  the  mold  of  the  horrible,  and  depended  for  its 
strength  on  the  debased  characters  and  the 
criminal  life  of  which  Fagin  is  the  central  figure. 

It  was  eighteen  years  since  Ivanhoe  had  ap- 
peared, and  what  a  contrast  between  its  Jewish 
personage  and  the  character  in  this,  the  next 
work  of  a  great  English  writer,  in  which  a  Jew 
plays  a  prominent  role  !  In  the  one  the  charm, 
in  the  other  the  disgrace  of  the  work ;  in  the 
one  the  possessor  of  all  human  virtues,  in  the 
other  of  all  human  vices ;  in  the  one  fair  in 
body  and  fairer  in  soul,  in  the  other  distorted  in 
body  and  black  in  soul ;  the  one  a  plea  for  kind- 
ness toward  a  community  at  that  time  still  un- 
recognized as  worthy  of  the  rights  of  men  and 
women,  the  other  calculated  to  re-awaken  all  the 
old  thoughts,  if  ever  they  had  died  out,  of  the 
baseness  and  wickedness  of  the  Jews. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  a  detailed  account 
of  the  story  of  the  adventures  of  Oliver  Twist, 
of  Bill  and  Nancy  Sykes,  of  Mr.  Bumble  and 
his  offices,  of  Fagin  and  his  precious  pupils,  the 
Artful  Dodger  and  Charley  Bates ;  all  that  in- 
terests us  here  is  the  character  of  Fagin,  who 
is  continually  obtruded  upon  our  notice  as  "  the 
Jew."  Were  the  miscreant,  whenever  intro- 
duced upon  the  scene,  merely  spoken  of  as 
Fagin,  we  would  look  upon  him  as  an  example 


90  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

of  London's  criminal  class,  and  there  would  be 
nothing  further  to  arrest  our  special  attention. 
He  would  be  to  us  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
wicked  wretch,  who  led  youths  astray,  enjoyed 
the  fruits  of  others'  wrong-doing,  whom  he  in- 
stigated; with  no  redeeming  qualities,  a  cow- 
ard, a  thief,  well  nigh  a  murderer.  We  would 
consider  his  punishment  deserved,  as  it  is,  and 
that  graphic  description  of  his  last  night  alive, 
as  one  of  the  strongest,  though  at  the  same  time 
one  of  the  most  horrible  chapters  in  the  range 
of  fiction.  Our  whole  concern  with  the  novel 
would  be  to  judge  it  upon  its  literary  merits, 
the  strength  of  its  characters,  the  correctness  of 
its  situations.  It  would  be  as  the  many  others 
of  the  productions  of  the  masters  of  fiction ;  but 
for  one  reason  the  work  is  somewhat  more  than 
this  to  us.  Our  interest  does  not  cease  here. 
We  have  to  do  with  the  Jew. 

The  author  presented  this  character  as  a  Jew, 
and  hence  has  laid  himself  open  to  the  charge 
of  gross  wrong  and  injustice.  The  fact  of  Fa- 
gin  being  a  Jew  does  not  make  him  what  he  is ; 
but  when  the  novel  was  written  such  an  idea 
was  far  from  being  deemed  impossible.  The  Jew 
was  still  an  unknown  quantity ;  people  thought 
him  sui  generis ;  it  was  not  known,  according  to 
popular  opinion,  what  he  was  likely  to  do. 

All  ideas  formed  of  the  Jews,  if  any  were 
held  at  all,  were  gathered  from  hostile  writings, 
or  were  due  to  prejudice.  It  was  only  the  few, 


91 

the  very  few,  who  could  rise  to  the  height  of 
the  thought  of  humanity  and  see  in  them  the 
man,  without  regard  to  the  religion  which  had 
been  taught  hy  churchmen  to  have  outlived  its 
usefulness  and  to  have  been  clung  to  with  an  ob- 
stinacy that  was  reprehensible.  But  six  years 
before  the  publication  of  this  novel,  in  spite  of 
the  most  strenuous  efforts  of  Robert  Grant, 
Macaulay,  and  their  confreres  of  the  Liberal  or 
Whig  party,  it  was  found  impossible  to  have  a 
bill  granting  full  emancipation  to  the  Jews 
passed  in  Parliament.  In  the  country  beyond  the 
cities,  into  which  the  Jews  had  not  yet  pene- 
trated, we  may  be  sure  that  the  most  grotesque 
opinions  concerning  them  were  entertained.  A 
work  such  as  this,  which  was  read  every-where 
and  by  every  body,  could  not  fail,  therefore,  in 
deepening  the  unfavorable  impression,  for  the 
mass  of  the  people  think  not  deeply ;  they  are 
swayed  by  sentiments  and  prejudices,  which, 
deep-rooted,  are  long  in  being  eradicated.  The 
influence  for  evil  was,  without  doubt,  incalcula- 
ble, for  the  villain  was  a  Jew,  and,  if  one  were 
such,  it  was  concluded  that  all  were. 

The  world  still  deemed  the  Jews  capable  of 
the  greatest  crimes,  for  it  was  but  three  years 
after  this  book  was  written  that  the  terrible  Da- 
mascus affair  took  place,  in  1840,  and  there  were 
many  in  Europe  who  believed  the  story  that  the 
Jews  had  murdered  the  monk,  Father  Thomas, 
to  use  his  blood  at  the  Passover  Feast  (for,  in 


92  THE   JEW  iff  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

ignorant  communities,  the  same  terrible  accusa- 
tion still  finds  credence;  it  is  only  a  few  years 
back  that  the  world  was  startled  by  a  like  pro- 
ceeding in  Hungary,  after  the  falsity  of  the 
charge  had  been  proven  again  and  again).  Even 
some  European  consuls,  stationed  in  the  Levant 
at  that  time,  instead  of  using  their  influence  to 
give  the  unfounded  accusations  the  lie,  fanned 
the  popular  fury  and  fanaticism.  So,  then,  when 
people  were  still  capable  of  listening  to  and  ac- 
cepting as  true  such  charges  against  these  un- 
happy people,  every  portrayal  that  set  forth  even 
one  mentioned  as  of  their  number  as  wicked, 
could  not  but  weigh  them  still  lower  to  the  ground. 
Truly,  in  1837,  when  this  novel  was  published, 
there  was  not  much  enlightenment  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Jews  and  Judaism,  and  every  popular  de- 
traction but  strengthened  the  wrong  opinion. 
It  is  my  aim  to  correct  the  false  impressions  con- 
cerning the  Jews  and  Jewish  history  and  life, 
that  had  been  spread  by  these  works.  There 
are  dark  sides  as  well  as  light,  and  if  they  have 
been  correctly  portrayed  I  am  ever  ready  and 
willing  to  acknowledge  them  also  as  true.  But 
Fagin,  it  can  not  be  my  purpose  to  justify  nor 
to  apologize  for;  except  in  name,  he  is  no  Jew ; 
he  is  a  villainous  criminal,  that  is  all.  It  is  un- 
just to  append  the  appellation  Jew  to  such  as 
Fagin  and  his  like,  even  if  in  life  there  should 
be  those  of  his  vile  character  who  chance  to 
have  been  born  in  the  Jewish  religion. 


VI.    DICKENS'S   "  OLIVER  TWIST/*  93 

Strange  it  is,  at  best,  that  Charles  Dickens, 
who,  of  all  fictionists,  contributed  the  most 
toward  reforming  social  abuses,  should,  in  this 
one  instance,  have  joined  the  vulgar  cry,  and 
marked  his  worst  character  as  a  Jew.  Knowing 
what  we  do  of  his  works,  we  should  rather 
have  looked  for  the  opposite.  Here  was  an  ex- 
cellent opportunity  for  a  lashing  of  false  opinions 
and  abuses  of  society.  Here  were  people  who, 
through  no  fault  of  their  own,  were  abused  and 
pressed  down,  were  denied  political  rights,  and 
could  not  sit  in  either  house.  A  call  upon  the 
English  nation  to  amend  these  wrongs  would 
have  sounded  more  consistent  with  the  whole 
course  of  this  novelist,  than  this  evidence  of  par- 
ticipation in  the  popular  sentiment.  His  other 
criminals  are  designated  by  name,  not  by  religion 
nor  by  sect. 

I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  digress  for  a  short 
space  and  allude  to  an  abuse  so  nearly  allied  to 
this  error  of  the  novelist,  that  it  will  not  be  out  of 
place  to  mention  it  here.  Unfortunately,  there  are 
criminals  and  wrong-doers  of  the  Jewish  relig- 
ion. At  times  it  is  found  necessary  to  place  them 
behind  prison  bars,  and  then  we  have  the  delec- 
table experience  of  being  informed  by  the  news- 
papers, following  the  example  of  the  novelist, 
that  N.  N".,  a  Hebrew,  or  Jew,  was  convicted  of 
theft  or  some  other  crime.  In  statistics  of  re- 
formatories and  houses  of  refuge,  I  have  al- 
ready seen  it  mentioned  that  two,  or  three,  or 


94  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

four,  or  how  great  the  number  might  be,  of  the 
inmates  were  Jews,  and  in  vain  have  I  looked 
for  a  statement  of  the  religion  of  the  remainder. 
If  this  is  not  done  with  intent,  which  I  will  be 
charitable  enough  to  suppose  it  is  not,  it  proves 
at  least  that  that  for  which  the  Jews  are  so 
strenuously  striving,  not  to  be  distinguished  as 
Jews  except  in  the  religious  sense,  has  not  yet 
fully  dawned  upon  the  community. 

Had,  two  thousand  years  ago,  an  Israelite  been 
apprehended  in  Phoenicia,  a  neighboring  country 
to  Palestine,  as  a  criminal,  and  the  Phoenician 
account  had  informed  the  public  that  Eliezer  ben 
Jacob,  an  Israelite,  had  been  convicted  of  theft, 
that  had  been  perfectly  proper,  for  the  Israelites 
were  then  still  a  nation ;  but  now,  when  all  Jew- 
ish national  distinctions  are  lost,  such  invidious 
mentions  are  wrong  and  unjust.  As  Fagin 
stands  on  a  level  with  Sykes,  and  the  religion  of 
neither  can  be  blamed  for  such  characters — since 
in  all  such  instances  the  teachings  of  religion 
have  been  neglected  and  the  evil  in  man  been 
permitted  to  take  the  upper  hand — so  let  our 
notice  of  this  novel  accomplish  at  least  this  much, 
that  it  gives  us  occasion  to  insist  again  on  so 
much  justice  being  done,  that  no  wrong- doers  be 
thrust  upon  public  notice  as  of  this  faith,  unless 
the  practice  become  universal  of  mentioning  the 
criminal's  religion  opposite  his  name.  Fagin  be- 
longs to  the  Barabbas  class  of  Jewish  portrayals. 
It  looks  as  if  the  author  had  made  a  study  of  the 


OLIVER   TWIST."  95 

criminal  classes,  and  tacked  on  the  name  of 
Jew.  What  his  motive  was  we  have  not  been 
able  to  discover ;  if  this  was  his  opinion  of  the 
Jews,  he  must  have  modified  it  considerably 
in  later  life,  as  we  shall  soon  see.  To  me  it 
appears  that  Dickens  did  not  intend  to  do  an 
injustice  to  the  Jews;  he  drew  this  character 
in  as  strong  a  manner  as  he  could,  and  named 
him  a  Jew  individually  without  considering  that 
it  would  react  to  the  detriment  of  all  of  that 
religion.  Unfortunate  it  is  that  the  character 
was  designated  a  Jew,  for  I  consider  this  a 
blot  on  the  otherwise  fair  fame  of  the  great  fic- 
tionist,  as  it  is  the  one  instance  in  his  works 
wherein  harm  ensued  from  his  writings.  But 
this  must  be  said  for  him,  that  if  the  novel  is 
read  carefully,  it  will  be  seen  that  he  draws  a 
Jew,  not  the  Jew ;  that  is,  one  man,  not  the  type — 
for  nowhere  can  an  expression  be  found  that  he 
considered  the  evil  qualities  of  Fagin,  Jewish 
qualities.  Well  had  it  been  had  this  been  so  un- 
derstood by  all  his  readers ;  but,  unfortunately,  as 
so  many  of  Dickens' s  characters  have  been  taken 
as  types,  such  as  Squeers,  Micawber,  Mrs.  Gamp, 
so  was  this  looked  upon  as  typical,  and  another 
inimical  element  aroused  for  the  Jew  to  combat. 
As  if  conscious  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  a  great 
injustice,  the  novelist,  in  the  last  complete  work 
that  he  wrote,  "  Our  Mutual  Friend,"  seems  to 
atone  for  this  wrong  committed  in  his  youth? 


96  THE   JEW   IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

and  we  therefore  leave  the  dark  picture  of  Fagin 
to  turn  to  a  figure  all  light — Biah,  the  Jew  in 
this  other  work. 

The  whole  tone  of  the  novelist,  when  speak- 
ing of  or  treating  this  character,  sounds  apolo- 
getic ;  he  goes  to  the  almost  opposite  extreme, 
and  Riah  is  well  nigh  impossibly  good ;  he  has 
no  evil  traits,  he  is  kind,  gentle,  compassionate, 
grateful,  humble,  long-suffering  in  misfortune; 
he  accepts  his  hard  lot  without  murmuring ;  he 
is  misunderstood,  considered  a  villain,  a  stony- 
hearted creditor,  and  yet  this  remarkable  old 
man  bears  the  stings  of  outrageous  fortune  with 
an  equanimity  worthy  of  the  Stoic  philosophers. 
What  impresses  us  as  still  more  peculiar,  is  that 
whenever  Rlah  evinces  a  trait  especially  beau- 
tiful we  are  told  that  this  is  characteristic  of  his 
people,  as  though  the  novelist  wished  to  say : 
"  The  Jews  are  not  as  black  as  I  painted  Fagin  ; 
they  have  many  praiseworthy  qualities,  as 
evinced  by  this  fine  old  man,  who  shows  such 
nobility  and  elevation  of  character  amid  such 
distressing  surroundings."  Thus  they  stand — 
Fagin,  the  Jew  of  Dickens's  youth,  and  Riah,  he 
of  his  later  years.  Was  it  experience  that 
taught  him  better?  Had  he  met  with  such 
whose  characters  and  doings  impelled  him  to 
the  thought  that  he  had  done  a  wrong  in  naming 
one  of  his  blackest  creations  a  Jew  ?  Is  Biah  a 
set-off  to  Fagin,  an  apology?  I  can  not  but 
think  so.  A  later  judgment  must  always  be 


VI.      DICKENS*  S   "OUR  MUTUAL   FRIEND."         97 

supposed  to  subvert  an  earlier  one,  and  we  are 
justified  in  concluding  that  Dickens's  opinion 
of  the  Jews  underwent  a  complete  change,  as 
we  may  learn  from  this  novel,  which  may  be 
regarded  in  a  manner  as  his  literary  last  will  and 
testament.  As  the  personage  of  Riah  is  not  the 
most  prominent  in  the  tale,  and  as  his  charac- 
teristics may  not  have  thoroughly  impressed 
themselves  on  the  minds  of  all,  it  may  be  well, 
especially  as  it  can  be  done  briefly,  to  state 
the  striking  features  of  the  presentation,  before 
giving  an  estimate  of  the  truthfulness  of  the 
picture. 

This  admirable  old  man  is  in  the  power  of  a 
young  villain,  who  draws  all  the  profits  from  a 
disgraceful,  grinding  business,  while  the  Jew  is 
the  ostensible,  hard-hearted  owner  who  will  show 
no  mercy.  This  false  position  he  unmurmur- 
ingly  fills,  for  the  father  of  the  young  scamp 
had  done  him  kindness,  and  had  in  a  manner 
intrusted  the  welfare  of  the  youth  to  him.  He 
therefore  feels  it  -his  duty  to  aid  the  son,  even 
when  such  aid  necessitates  him  to  engage  in 
so  disreputable  an  occupation.  This  Master 
Fledgely  reviles  him,  mocks  him,  rails  at  him ; 
he  receives  it  all  with  bent  head  and  hands 
stretched  out  downward  as  if  to  deprecate  the 
wrath  of  a  superior.  Not  one  word  of  anger 
escapes  him,  not  one  accent  of  wrath.  "With  all 
his  shabbiness  there  is  something  that  attracts 
the  notice  of  those  about  him.  He  looks  not 


98  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

mean ;  his  words,  the  few  that  he  utters,  are  im- 
pressive.    Notwithstanding  the   comparatively 
small  part  he  plays  he  is  the  most  beautiful 
character  of  the  whole   novel;   so   strange,  so 
peculiar,  almost  like  another  patriach  forced  by 
circumstances   into  a   false   position.     His   first 
words  are  weighty:   "Your  people  need  speak 
truth  sometimes,  for  they  lie  enough,"  is  said  to 
him,  and  he  goes  not  into  a  long  extenuation ;  he 
merely  parries  by  a  keen  counter  thrust :  "  Sir, 
there  is  too  much  untruth  among  all  denomina- 
tions of  men,"  and  immediately  thereupon  when 
his  master,  knowing  the  true  state  of  affairs,  that 
Riah,  to  whom  he  pays  but  a  pittance  as  his 
weekly  salary,  is  very  poor  and  he  is  rich,  asks : 
"  Who  but  you  and  I  ever  heard  of  a  poor  Jew  ?" 
he   answers :   "  The  Jews.     They  hear   of  poor 
Jews  often  and  are  very  good  to  them."     This  is 
one  of  the  instances  in  which  the  novelist  speaks 
so  kindly  of  those  whom  he  felt  that  in  an  ear- 
lier day  he  had  wronged.     About  that  which  he 
says  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak  here  further ;  in 
another  place    I   have    abundantly   shown   the 
great   mistake  of   continually  flaunting   to  the 
world  the  wealth  of  the  Jews,  which  has  aroused 
much  of  the    envy  and   ill-feeling  felt   toward 
them,  and  much  of  the  anti-semitisrn  open  and 
above  board   throughout    European   countries; 
there   is   so   much   poverty   among   them    that 
the   thousand  and  one   benevolent   associations 
with   all    the   money    at    their   command,    can 


VI.   DICKENS' S  "  OUR  MUTUAL  FRIEND."  99 

not  do  more  than  even  slightly  ameliorate  the 
misery  of  their  poor.  The  Jewish  poor  seek  not 
relief  elsewhere.  The  principle  of  charity  is  so 
closely  connected  with  the  religion  that  among 
them  one  and  the  same  word  is  used  to  express 
righteousness  and  charity.  Therefore,  when  a 
few  weeks  ago  at  a  public  meeting  of  the  Poor 
Association  of  this  city,  one  of  the  speakers 
cited  as  a  striking  fact  that  very  few  Hebrews 
sought  relief  from  the  association,  the  reason 
for  this  is  not  that  there  are  not  sufficient  who 
seek  relief,  nor  that  they  are  all  rich,  but  that 
within  their  own  religion  the  better  situated 
lend  a  hand  to  their  needy  brethren. 

The  world  learns  not  of  the  great  poverty  and 
suffering  among  them.  Statistics  show  that 
there  is  proportionately  no  more,  yes,  that  there 
is  less,  wealth  among  them  than  among  other 
denominations. 

Again  the  writer  tells  us  that  even  for  the  pit- 
tance that  Riah  receives  from  his  master  he  is 
grateful,  and  parenthetically  remarks  that  in  his 
race  gratitude  is  strong  and  enduring.  When- 
ever Riah  appears  it  is  always  to  advantage ;  he 
has  a  sad,  sweet,  benevolent  smile ;  his  actions 
are  all  those  of  kindness. 

Gentleness,  humility,  are  the  terms  wherein  he 
is  usually  spoken  of.  He  looks  more  like  some 
superior  creature  benignantly  blessing  Mr. 
Fledgely,  his  master,  than  a  poor  dependent 
upon  whom  this  one  has  set  his  foot. 


100  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

But  one  more  trait,  and  I  will  have  done 
with  quoting  his  excellencies.  Being  forced  to 
assume  the  false  position,  so  at  variance  with  his 
true  self,  before  others,  and  being  especially  down- 
cast when  in  the  presence  of  a  friend  who  knew 
him  as  himself,  he  appeared  as  the  merciless 
grinder,  Biah  determined  to  leave  this  degrading 
service.  The  reasons  he  gives  may  be  summed  up 
in  one  sentence,  viz  :  the  fact  of  all  the  Jews  be- 
ing blamed  because  of  his  seeming  wrong-doing. 
Dickens,  through  Biah,  states  this  strongly.  It 
only  proves  again  that  to  which  I  referred  be- 
fore, that  he  intended  by  this  character  to  pre- 
sent not  only  a  man  with  beautiful  traits,  but 
wished  to  be  in  some  manner  a  corrector  of 
Wrong  impressions  concerning  the  co-religionists 
of  Biah. 

Beautiful  as  is  the  character,  and  all  honor 
that  it  does  the  novelist,  there  is  a  grave  objec- 
tion to  it,  and  that  is,  the  character  is  too  beau- 
tiful, too  unreal.  If  the  portrayal  of  Fagin  sins 
on  the  one  side,  that  of  Biah  sins  on  the  other. 
He  is  faultless;  he  is  more  than  human.  No 
man  could  have  endured  so  sweetly,  gently,  and 
quietly  that  position ;  no  man,  rather  than  rap 
at  the  door  at  nine  in  the  morning  for  fear  of 
disturbing  the  inmate,  would  have  sat  down  in 
the  cold  for  an  hour,  and  only  rapped  when  he 
was  almost  freezing ;  that  is  a  little  beyond  hu- 
man nature.  ~No  man,  who  is  not  a  hypocrite, 


101 

as  which,  surely  it  was  not  meant  to  represent 
Riah,  would  consider  his  master  beneficent,  who 
paid  him  a  few  shillings  and  pocketed  the  large 
earnings,  and  for  this  would  be  so  grateful  as  to 
kiss  the  hem  of  his  garment ;  the  humility  which 
he  displays  would  pass  with  some  as  worthy  of 
all  praise ;  to  us  it  appears  too  unnatural,  too 
impossible. 

Riah  is  as  little  the  picture  of  the  Jew  as 
Fagin  is ;  he  gives  utterance  to  some  words 
about  the  Jews  which  are  true  enough,  but  he 
can  not  stand  as  a  representative  of  the  Jews. 
If  they  are  to  be  characters  in  fiction,  they  wish 
but  justice,  and  no  more.  An  advocate  who 
gives  a  rose-colored  account  of  his  client  will 
not  be  believed.  The  Jew  has  his  faults  as  all 
men  have.  There  is  as  much  harm  in  overesti- 
mating as  in  undervaluing.  A  constant  flow  of 
praise  loses  all  strength  for  an  impartial  mind, 
as  does  also  a  constant  flow  of  abuse.  We  have 
in  fiction  demoniacally  bad  Jews,  and  ideally 
good  ones.  Barabbas  and  Fagin  on  the  one 
hand,  Sheva,  Rebecca,  and  Riah  on  the  other. 
In  the  works  we  have  treated  thus  far,  the  true 
picture  has  not  yet  been  given ;  it  will  only  be 
drawn  by  such  a  one  who  has  made  a  searching 
and  psychological  study  of  the  religious  and 
hereditary  traits  of  the  descendants  of  this  most 
remarkable  stock.  So  many  influences  and 
agencies  have  combined  in  the  formation  of  the 
historical  Jewish  character  that  it  requires  a 


102  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

keen  and  observant  mind,  indeed,  to  separate 
it  into  its  elements.  In  its  wanderings  it  has 
acquired  much.  What  is  original,  what  is  ac- 
quired ;  what  is  Jewish,  what  cosmopolitan  ? 
It  is  no  easy  task.  It  requires  a  feat  of  mental 
analysis,  and  the  preparation  necessary  is  very 
great — more  probably  than  any  fictionist  can 
give  it. 

A  figure  such  as  Biah,  although  a  beautiful 
creation,  does  not  conduce  to  an  appreciation  or 
dissemination  of  the  truth.  After  reading  the 
book  and  pondering  on  the  character,  the 
thought  will  at  once  occur  that  no  man,  Jew  or 
any  other,  is  cast  in  so  perfect  a  mold ;  exagger- 
ation never  serves  its  purpose,  especially  when 
on  the  side  of  the  exceedingly  good.  Both  these 
characters  of  Dickens  are  open  to  the  same  seri- 
ous objection,  they  are  not  truthfnl ;  the  one  a 
mere  villain,  with  no  redeeming  qualities,  the 
other  a  fine  spirit,  without  any  dross;  neither 
Jewish,  except  in  name,  for  they  stand  not  as 
representing  in  any  way  their  religion.  It  is 
abundantly  evident  that  the  Jewish  character 
was  little  studied ;  the  presentation  of  Blah  re- 
minds us  of  some  sweets  that  are  given  a  patient 
after  he  has  swallowed  a  very  bitter  dose.  As 
little  as  the  Jew  wishes  to  be  judged  by  the  vil- 
lain in  "  Oliver  Twist,"  so  little  asks  he  to  be 
measured  by  the  benevolent  old  man  in  "Our 
Mutual  Friend." 


VI.     DICKENS' S   "  OUR   MUTUAL  FRIEND."        103 

NOTE. — About  forty  years  ago,  several  letters 
passed  between  Dickens  and  a  Jewess  relative  to 
the  subject  treated  in  this  chapter.  I  am.  indebted 
to  Mr.  Max  J.  Kohler,  of  New  York,  for  having 
called  my  attention  to  these  well-nigh  forgotten 
letters.  They  are  of  more  than  passing  interest, 
for  they  substantiate  the  hypothesis  advanced  in 
this  chapter,  viz.,  that  Riah  was  drawn  as  an 
apology  for  Fagin.  The  letters  are  as  follows : 

(LETTER  1.) 

June  22,  1863. 

Dear  Sir — I  venture  to  address  you  on  a  subject 
in  which  I  am  greatly  interested.  .  .  .  But 
there  are  other  oppressions  much  heavier,  other 
stings  far  sharper,  than  the  fetters  and  goads  of 
Damascus,  Lebanon  or  Russia. 

In  this  country,  where  the  liberty  of  the  subject 
is  fully  recognized,  where  the  law  knows  110  dis- 
tinction of  creed,  the  pen  of  the  novelist,  the  gibe 
of  the  pamphleteer  is  still  whetted  against  the 
sons  of  Israel.  It  has  been  said  that  Charles 
Dickens,  the  large-hearted,  whose  works  plead  so 
eloquently  for  the  oppressed  of  his  country,  has 
encouraged  a  vile  prejudice  against  the  despised 
Hebrew.  We  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when 
Shakespeare's  Shylock  receives  a  very  different 
rendering  to  that  which  was  given  to  it  fifty  years 
ago.  The  great  master  has  at  last  found  an  ex- 
ponent. Fagin,  I  fear,  admits  of  only  one  inter- 
pretation. But  Charles  Dickens  lives.  The  author 
can  justify  himself  or  atone  for  a  great  wrong  on 
a  whole  scattered  nation. 

Again  apologizing  for  intruding  so  long  on  your 
valuable  time,  I  remain,  dear  sir,  faithfully  and 
sincerely  yours,  E. 

To  CHARLES  DICKENS. 


104  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 


(REPLY  TO  LETTER  1.) 

Friday,  10  July,  1863. 

Dear  Madam — I  hope  you  will  excuse  this  tardy 
reply  to  your  letter.  It  is  often  impossible  for  me 
by  any  means  to  keep  pace  with  my  correspondents. 
I  beg  leave  to  say  that  if  there  be  any  general 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  intelligent  Jewish  people 
that  I  have  done  them  what  you  describe  as  a 
"great  wrong,"  they  are  a  far  less  sensible,  a  far 
less  just,  and  a  far  less  good  tempered  people  than 
I  have  always  supposed  them  to  be.  Fagin,  in 
''Oliver  Twist,"  is  a  Jew  because  it  unfortunately 
was  true  of  the  time  to  which  that  story  refers  that 
that  class  of  criminals  almost  invariably  was  a 
Jew.  But  surely  no  sensible  man  or  woman  of 
your  persuasion  can  fail  to  observe — firstly,  that 
all  the  rest  of  the  wicked  dramatis  personae  are 
Christians;  and,  secondly,  that  he  is  called  the 
"Jew"  not  because  of  his  religion,  but  because  of 
his  race.  If  I  were  to  write  a  story  in  which  I  de- 
scribed a  Frenchman  or  a  Spaniard  as  the  "Roman 
Catholic,"  I  should  do  a  very  indecent  and  un- 
justifiable thing;  but  I  make  mention  of  Fagin 
as  the  Jew  because  he  is  one  of  the  Jewish  people, 
and  because  it  conveys  that  kindly  idea  of  him 
which  I  should  give  my  readers  of  a  Chinaman  by 
calling  him  a  "Chinese." 

The  inclosed  is  quite  a  nominal  subscription 
toward  the  good  object  in  which  you  are  interested ; 
but  I  hope  it  may  serve  to  show  you  that  I  have  no 
feeling  toward  the  Jewish  people  but  a  friendly 
one.  I  always  speak  well  of  them,  whether  in 
public  or  private,  and  bear  testimony  (as  I  ought 
to  do)  to  their  perfect  good  faith  in  other  transac- 
tions as  I  have  ever  had  with  them ;  and  in  my 
"Child's  History  of  England,"  I  have  lost  no  op- 


VI.     DICKBNS'S    "  OUR   MUTUAL   FRIEND."        105 

portunity  of  setting  forth  their  cruel  persecution 
in  old  times. 

Dear  madame,  faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  DICKENS. 

(LETTER  2.) 

July  14,  1863. 

Dear  Sir — Pray  receive  my  best  thanks  for  your 
kind  letter  and  its  inclosure.  I  have  a  great  dis- 
like to  making  myself  troublesome,  yet  trust  you 
will  pardon  my  venturing  a  few  words  on  the  Jew- 
ish character.  Is  it  a  fact  that  the  Jewish  race 
and  religion  are  inseparable?  If  a  Jew  embrace 
any  other  faith,  he  is  no  longer  known  as  one  of 
the  race,  either  to  his  own  people  or  to  the  Gentiles 
to  whom  he  may  have  joined  himself.  Does  any- 
one designate  Mr.  Disraeli  as  the  Jew?  I  cannot 
dispute  the  fact  that  at  the  time  to  which  "Oliver 
Twist"  refers  there  were  some  Jew  receivers  of 
stolen  goods ;  and  although,  in  my  own  mind,  it  is 
a  distinction  without  a  difference,  I  do  not  think 
that  it  could  at  all  be  proved  that  there  was  one 
so  base  as  to  train  young  thieves  in  the  manner 
described  in  that  work.  If,  as  you  remark,  "all 
must  observe  that  the  other  criminal  character 
were  Christians,"  they  are  at  least  contrasted  with 
characters  of  good  Christians ;  this  poor,  wretched 
Fagin  stands  alone — the  Jew. 

How  grateful  we  are  to  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Mrs. 
S.  C.  Hall  for  their  delineations  of  some  of  our 
race  ;  yet  Isaac  of  York  was  not  all  virtue.  I  hope 
we  shall  not  forfeit  your  opinion  of  our  sense  and 
good  temper — perhaps  we  are  oversensitive ;  but 
are  we  not  overflayed?  Are  we  not  constantly  irri- 
tated by  the  small  gnats  who  may  fret  us,  yet  are 
in  themselves  too  insignificant  to  be  annihilated? 
It  is  only  when  a  great  mind  appears  to  be  against 
us  that  we  plaintively  appeal. 


106  THE   JEW    IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

We  dwell  in  this  country  very  little  known ;  our 
domestic  customs  entirely  unknown.  I  have  my- 
self been  greatly  astonished  at  the  ignorance  of 
my  countrymen  in  general  concerning  what  they 
appear  to  think  an  entirely  foreign  people.  Look 
at  the  blood  accusations  from  time  to  time  rising 
against  us — even  such  a  popular  paper  as  " Cham- 
bers '"  disseminating  that  calumny.  I  hazard  the 
opinion  that  it  would  well  repay  an  author  of 
reputation  to  examine  more  closely  into  the  man- 
ners and  character  of  the  British  Jews,  and  to 
represent  them  as  they  really  are — "Nothing  ex- 
tenuate, nor  aught  set  down  in  malice. " 

I  remain,  dear,  sir,  yours,  etc. 

To  Charles  Dickens,  Esq. 

The  reply  to  the  letter  of  the  14th  of  July, 
1863,  was  the  character  of  Riah,  in  "Our  Mutual 
Friend."  Riah  was  open  to  criticism,  which  the 
writer  addressed  to  Mr.  Dickens,  and  she  received 
the  following  reply : 

Wednesday,  Nov.  16,  1864. 

Dear  Madame — I  have  received  your  letter  with 
great  pleasure,  and  hope  to  be  (as  I  have  always 
been  in  heart)  the  best  of  friends  with  the  Jewish 
people.  The  error  you  point  out  to  me  had  oc- 
curred to  me,  as  most  errors  do  to  most  people, 
when  it  was  too  late  to  correct  it.  But  it  will  do 
no  harm.  The  peculiarities  of  dress  and  manner 
are  fused  together  for  the  sake  of  picturesqueness. 

Dear  madame,  faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  DICKENS. 


107 


VII     DISRAELI'S    "CONINGSBY"    AND 
"  TANCRED." 

Benjamin  Disraeli  was  descended  from  an  old 
Jewish  family.  His  father,  Isaac,  the  author 
of  "  The  Curiosities  of  Literature,"  and  other 
works,  had  some  misunderstanding  with  the 
trustees  of  the  synagogue,  left  it,  and  had  his 
son  Benjamin  baptized  in  the  Christian  church 
at  the  age  of  twelve  years.  The  son  was  brill- 
iant and  ambitious,  and  was  determined  to 
make  his  way  in  the  world.  He  was  nominally  a 
Christian,  therefore  the  civil  disabilities  under 
which  the  Jews  labored  did  not  stand  in  his  way. 
After  many  failures,  he  at  last  succeeded  in  hav- 
ing himself  elected  to  Parliament.  The  fact  of 
his  having  been  born  a  Jew  was  often  cast  up  to 
him,  and  he  might  expect  the  same  in  the  future. 
With  characteristic  boldness  he  did  not,  as  many 
another  would  have  done,  attempt  to  shield  him- 
self from  this  charge  by  pointing  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  now  a  Christian,  and  repudiating  all 
connection  with  the  Jews,  but  he  took  up  the 
gauntlet,  turned  upon  the  haughty  English  aris- 
tocrats, and  in  several  works  set  himself  to  the 
task  of  proving  that  he  was  descended  from  the 
true  nobility  of  the  earth,  that  in  comparison 
with  the  splendor  and  length  of  his  lineage,  the 


108  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

oldest  English  families  were  but  as  of  yesterday. 
He  wished  to  show  that  he  was  proud  of  his  de- 
scent from  a  race  which,  "  scattered,  banished, 
plundered,  and  humiliated  for  thousands  of  years 
by  Egyptian  Pharaohs,  Assyrian  kings,  Roman 
Emperors,  Scandinavian  crusaders,  Gothic  chiefs, 
and  holy  inquisitors,  had  still  held  their  own,  had 
kept  their  race  pure,  and  remained  to  this  day 
irrepressible,  inexhaustible,  indispensable,  full 
of  energy  and  genius."  Disraeli  had  adopted 
the  novel  as  the  medium  for  the  communication 
of  his  ideas.  His  ideas  and  thoughts  of  the 
Jews,  their  past,  their  present,  he  laid  down  in 
two  works  of  fiction,  "  Coningsby  "  and  "  Tan- 
cred,"  and  in  a  chapter  of  his  biography  of 
Lord  George  Bentinck.  These  must  be  taken 
together;  "  Tancred"  is  a  continuation  of  "  Con- 
ingsby," and  in  the  biography  the  ideas  expressed 
in  "  Tancred"  are  in  a  great  measure  reproduced. 
In  these  novels  we  have  to  do  not  so  much  with 
individual  characters  (as  in  the  works  we  have 
thus  far  treated)  as  with  an  idea  which  is  stated, 
repeated,  proved,  strengthened,  enforced  by  ex- 
ample. I  can  not  take  time  to  review  the  plots 
of  these  novels.  The  plots  here,  at  best,  are 
only  minor;  the  novels  were  written  with  a 
purpose,  and  this  purpose  I  will  concern  our- 
selves with  at  once.  Disraeli  is  a  shining  excep- 
tion to  but  too  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  class  of 
"  converted  Jews,"  whose  every  effort  it  is  to 
hide  their  origin ;  to  him  the  Jewish  race  was 


VII.    "  CONINGSBY  "  AND  "  TANCRED."          109 

"  the  oldest  of  unmixed  blood/'  and  therefore  it 
could  not  be  exterminated. 

"  Mixed  races  may  persecute  and  oppress ;  they 
may  have  temporary  power,  but  in  the  end  they 
must  disappear,  while  the  pure  race,  trampled 
upon,  oppressed,  humiliated,  will  ever  arise  in 
its  power  and  live  on  while  others  die  out."  This 
race  idea  forms  the  groundwork  of  the  Jewish 
portions  of  these  works.  The  exponent  of  these 
ideas  in  "Coningsby"  is  Sidonia,  a  grand,  mys- 
terious figure,  descended  from  one  of  those  fam- 
ilies which,  in  Spain,  pretended  to  be  Catholics 
while  they  were  secretly  Jews,  one  of  those 
wonderful  New- Christian  families,  members  of 
which  rose  to  the  highest  dignities  in  Church 
and  State.  Proud  is  Sidonia  of  this  descent; 
wealthy  as  the  Rothschilds,  a  power  in  every 
European  court,  versed  in  the  wisdom  of  all 
ages  and  all  lands,  but  with  all  this  wisdom, 
power,  and  wealth  not  a  citizen  of  his  native 
land,  for  the  civil  disabilities  of  the  Jews  had 
not  yet  been  removed.  The  anomaly  of  the 
position  of  the  Jews,  for  whose  full  emancipa- 
tion Disraeli  was  working,  is  here  well  brought 
out.  All  Sidonia's  expressions  tend  to  one 
point — intense  pride  in  his  race  and  his  religion. 
He  is  "  of  that  faith  that  the  apostles  professed 
before  they  followed  their  Master."  And  for 
that  race  and  that  faith  Disraeli  wishes  to  speak 
a  mighty  word.  The  Goths  persecuted  the 
Jews  in  Spain ;  where  are  they  so  cruel  and  so 


110  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 

haughty  ?  Despised  suppliants  to  that  very  race 
which  they  banished,  for  some  miserable  por- 
tion of  the  treasure  which  their  habits  of  indus- 
try have  again  accumulated.  Where  is  Spain  ? 
Fallen,  degraded,  while  the  race  which  it  ex- 
pelled is  more  prosperous  than  ever.  It  existed 
from  time  far  back;  it  exists  to-day;  it  will 
exist  on. 

"  The  Christendom  which  thou  hast  quitted," 
says  the  spirit  of  Arabia  to  Tancred,  "was  a 
savage  forest,  while  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  for 
countless  ages  had  built  the  palaces  of  mighty 
kings."  Here  it  is  that  Disraeli  brings  out  his 
theory  of  race.  Race  is  every  thing ;  nationality 
is  only  intermediate.  The  individual  is  great, 
because  he  combines  in  himself  all  the  great 
qualities  of  the  race.  He  tells  his  readers,  as  it 
were :  Hear  ye,  ye  who  look  down  upon  and  de- 
spise the  Hebrew  race,  ye  who  taunt  me  as 
being  descended  from  it,  it  of  all  races  is  un- 
mixed; it  is  the  most  ancient  if  not  the  only 
unmixed  race  that  dwells  in  cities.  Is  it  not 
marvelous  that  it  has  not  disappeared  ?  It  has 
defied  exile,  massacre,  spoliation ;  it  has  defied 
Time.  It  has  been  expatriated,  but  this  has 
been  one  of  the  reasons  of  its  endurance.  If  you 
wish  to  make  a  race  endure,  expatriate  them. 
Conquer  them,  and  they  may  blend  with  their 
conquerors ;  exile  them  and  they  will  live  apart 
forever. 

Disraeli  is  so  taken  up  with  this  idea  of  the 


VII.   "  CONINGSBY  "  AND  "  TANCRED."  Ill 

purity  of  race  that  he  permits  it  to  quite  dom- 
inate him.  He  was  so  ardent  in  his  desire  to 
make  good  his  claim  to  superiority  of  birth  to 
those  about  him,  that  he  looked  at  but  one  side 
of  the  matter.  In  summing  up  the  excellencies 
of  the  Jewish  race,  our  author  falls  into  exa#- 

7  O 

geration.  All  the  great  names  he  mentions  as 
Jews  is  but  characteristic  of  a  tendency  among 
all  the  fervent  advocates  of  the  superiority  of  the 
Jews  to  make  every  thing  noteworthy  Jewish. 
He.  finds  Jewish  blood  in  the  veins  of  a  Mozart, 
a  Rossini,  of  all  the  great  singers ;  he  tells  us  that 
in  all  the  cabinets  of  Europe  Jews  are  among 
the  leading  diplomats ;  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to 
suppose  that  Napoleon  had  Jewish  blood  cours- 
ing through  him.  Flattering  as  all  this  is  to  the 
vanity  of  Jews,  and  proud  as  they  must  be  of 
their  great  men,  yet  this  claiming  of  great  men 
as  Jews  without  absolute  proof  has  a  pernicious 
tendency. 

It  is  not  championing  the  Jews,  if  champion- 
ing they  need,  to  cite  these  few  names  when  so 
many  can  be  mentioned  as  controverting  this. 
The  great  man  belongs  to  the  world,  and  he  is 
the  result  of  world-influence ;  only  when  he  is 
great  as  a  teacher  of  religion,  or  in  some  branch 
in  which  religious  influences  tell,  is  it  due  to  his 
birth  as  Jew  or  Christian,  for  early  religious  in- 
fluences mold  him ;  but  greatness  in  other  re- 
gards depends  not  specially  hereon. 

But  Disraeli  is  treading  on  safer  and  surer 


112  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

ground  when  he  speaks  of  the  wonderful  influ- 
ence of  the  Jews  from  past  days  on  Europe, 
when  he  fervently  exclaims  that  in  his  day 
the  Hebrew  child  enters  upon  adolescence  only 
to  learn  that  he  is  the  Pariah  of  that  un- 
grateful Europe  that  owes  to  him  the  best 
part  of  its  laws,  a  fine  portion  of  its  literature, 
all  its  religion.  Modern  Europe  has  been  civ- 
ilized by  two  little  nations,  those  of  the  Jordan 
and  the  Ilyssus.  An  Arabian  tribe,  the  Jew- 
ish, an  ^Egean  clan,  the  Grecian,  have  been 
the  promulgators  of  our  knowledge.  The  in- 
fluence of  and  the  debt  to  the  Hebrews  of  the 
world  is  enormous.  The  life  and  property  of 
England  are  protected  by  the  laws  of  Sinai.  The 
hard-working  people  are  secured  in  every  seven 
a  day  of  rest  by  the  laws  of  Sinai.  And  yet 
they  persecute  the  Jews  and  hold  up  to  odium 
the  race  to  whom  they  are  indebted  for  the  sub- 
lime legislation  which  alleviates  the  inevitable 
lot  of  the  laboring  multitude.  The  most  popu- 
lar poet  in  England  is  not  Wordsworth  nor 
Byron,  not  even  Shakespeare;  it  is  the  sweet 
singer  of  Israel.  Independently  of  their  ad- 
mirable laws,  which  have  elevated  our  condition, 
and  of  their  exquisite  poetry,  which  has  charmed 
it ;  independently  of  their  heroic  history,  which 
has  animated  us  to  the  pursuit  of  public  liberty, 
we  are  indebted  to  the  Hebrew  people  for  our 
knowledge  of  the  true  God.  And  of  this  influ- 
ence he  calls  out  grandly  in  one  place :  "  Sons  of 


VII.   "  CONINGSBY  "  AND  "  TANCRED."          113 

Israel,  when  you  recollect  that  you  created 
Christendom,  you  may  pardon  the  Christians 
even  their  Autos-da-fe." 

But  the  chief  object  of  these  writings,  apart 
from  showing  the  influence  of  Jews  on  European 
thought,  the  absurdity  of  denying  full  emanci- 
pation to  those  who  have  given  the  best  in  life 
and  thought,  and  his  race  hobby,  is  to  draw  the 
relationship  between  Judaism  and  Christianity. 
Tancred  goes  to  Asia  for  inspiration,  to  investi- 
gate the  great  Asian  mystery;  for  from  Asia 
alone  great  movements  can  go  forth,  since  there 
alone  the  Divine  influence  rests,  and  there  alone 
God  spoke  with  man.  The  narrowness  and  fal- 
lacy of  this  conception  I  shall  notice  later  on. 
In  Bethany  Tancred  meets  with  Eva,  the  Jew- 
ess, and,  from  their  conversation,  as  well  as 
from  the  chapter  in  the  biography  of  Bentinck, 
which  I  mentioned  before,  we  gather  his  thoughts 
of  the  relationship  of  the  two  religions.  Chris- 
tianity is  Judaism  for  the  multitude.  Chris- 
tianity is  an  outcome  of  Judaism,  and  when  the 
Christians  reflect  that  the  teachings  of  Jesus  are 
founded  on  those  of  Moses,  surely  gratitude,  if 
nothing  else,  should  prevent  them  from  further 
oppressing  and  humiliating  those  who  gave  them 
a  God  and  a  religion.  The  first  question  that 
Eva  asks  Tancred  when  she  learns  that  he  is  a 
Christian,  is  whether  he  belongs  to  those  Franks 
who  worship  a  Jewess,  or  to  those  who  break 
her  images  and  do  not  bow  down  to  the  mother 


114  THE   JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

of  Jesus,  but  worship  the  son  of  Mary,  likewise 
a  Jew.  And  when  he  tells  her  that  the  Christian 
Church  will  teach  her  what  true  Christianity  is, 
she  asks  which,  and  enumerates  the  dozen  differ- 
ent churches,  all  of  which  differ,  and  concludes 
that  it  is  wise  "  to  remain  within  the  pale  of  a 
church  which  is  older  than  all  of  them,  the 
church  in  which  Jesus  was  born,  and  which  he 
never  quitted."  He  who  diffused  Christianity 
among  the  nations  was  not  a  senator  of  Rome 
nor  a  philosopher  of  Athens,  but  Paul,  a  Jew  of 
Tarsus,  who  founded  the  seven  churches  of  Asia. 
And  that  greater  church,  great  even  amid  its 
terrible  corruptions,  that  has  avenged  the  victory 
of  Titus  by  subjugating  the  capital  of  the  Caesars, 
and  has  changed  every  one  of  the  Olympian  tem- 
ples into  altars  of  the  God  of  Sinai  and  of  Cal- 
vary, was  founded  by  another  Jew,  a  Jew  of 
Galilee.  Thus  would  he  show  that  all  the  great- 
ness of  the  Christian  Church  is  due  to  Jews,  and 
had  it  not  been  for  them  Christianity  would 
never  have  arisen ;  its  morality  is  all  founded  on 
the  morality  of  the  Jewish  religion.  "  When 
the  lawyer  tempted  Jesus,  and  inquired  how  he 
was  to  inherit  eternal  life,  the  Great  Master  of 
Galilee  referred  him  to  the  writings  of  Moses. 
There  he  would  find  recorded  the  whole  duty 
of  man ;  to  love  God  with  all  his  heart  and  soul 
and  strength  and  mind,  and  his  neighbor  as 
himself.  These  two  principles  are  embodied  in 
the  writings  of  Moses,  and  are  the  essence  of 


vn.  "CONINGSBY"  AND  "TANCRED."       115 

Christian  morals."  But  there  is  a  great  fallacy 
in  regard  to  the  Jews,  which  Disraelli  felt  him- 
self called  upon  to  contradict,  the  fallacy  which 
originated  the  conception  of  the  "Wandering 
Jew,"  and  he  makes  Eva  ask  Tancrcd :  "  You 
think  the  present  state  of  my  race  penal  and 
miraculous?"  And  when  Tancred  answers  in 
the  affirmative,  and  gives  as  his  reason  "  that  it 
is  a  punishment  ordained  for  the  rejection  and 
crucifixion  of  the  Messiah"  —  the  common 
Christian  conception — Eva,  in  the  name  of  the 
author,  proceeds  to  disprove  this  prevalent 
thought.  In  a  later  book  Disraeli  repeats  the 
argument  in  well  nigh  the  same  words,  some- 
what as  follows:  This  doctrine,  that  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Jews  throughout  the  world  is  a 
punishment  because  Jesus  was  crucified,  a  doc- 
trine still  held  by  millions,  he  says  is  neither  his- 
torically true  nor  dogmatically  sound.  It  is  not 
historically  true,  because  at  the  time  of  Jesus' 
death,  the  Jews  had  for  centuries  been  scattered 
all  over  the  then  civilized  world,  from  Western 
Europe  to  Eastern  Asia,  in  Rome,  in  Alexandria, 
in  Antioch,  in  Parthia,  and,  therefore,  their  dis- 
persion could  not  have  resulted  from  the  fact 
that  they  did  not  receive  Jesus  as  the  Messiah. 
It  is  not  dogmatically  sound,  because  no  pas- 
sage in  the  sacred  writings  warrants,  in  the 
slightest  degree,  the  penal  assumption.  The 
words  of  the  mob,  "  His  blood  be  upon  us  and 
our  children,"  cited  by  Matthew,  are,  at  times, 


116  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

strangely  quoted  as  the  justification  for  the  be- 
lief. The  criminals  said  that,  not  the  judge. 
"  Is  it  a  principle  of  your  jurisprudence  to  per- 
mit the  guilty  to  assign  their  own  punishment  ? 
Why  should  that  transfer  any  of  the  infliction 
to  their  posterity?  What  evidence  have  you 
that  Omnipotence  accepted  the  offer  ?  He  whom 
you  acknowledge  as  omnipotent,  prayed  to  Je- 
hovah to  forgive  them,  on  account  of  their  ig- 
norance. But,  admit  that  the  offer  was  ac- 
cepted, which,  in  my  opinion,  is  blasphemy,  is 
the  cry  of  a  rabble  at  a  public  execution  to  bind 
a  nation  ?  What  had  the  thousands  who  were 
not  near  nor  present  to  do  with  the  crucifixion  ?" 
In  this  strain  Eva  continues,  and,  as  the  last 
word  of  the  conversation  says  :  "  We  have  some 
conclusions  in  common.  We  agree  that  half 
Christendom  worships  a  Jewess,  and  the  other 
half  a  Jew.  Now,  let  me  ask  you  one  more 
question.  Which  do  you  think  should  be  the 
superior  race,  the  worshiped  or  the  worship- 
ers?" 

I  have  given  at  some  length  Disraeli's  words. 
He  felt  it  necessary  to  be  thus  somewhat  apolo- 
getic. It  was  the  time  that  the  question  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  Jews  was  being  agitated 
and  the  good  feeling  had  to  be  fostered ;  it  was 
the  time,  too,  that  but  a  few  years  before  the 
whole  of  Europe  had  been  stirred  by  the  Damas- 
cus and  Rhodes  affair,  to  which  I  referred  in  the 
last  chapter,  when  the  old  lie  and  calumny,  the 


VH.    "  CONINGSBY  "  AND  "  TANCRED."          117 

cause  of  so  much  misery,  had  heen  trumped  up, 
that  Jews  had  killed  Christians  to  use  their 
blood  at  their  Passover;  not  only  the  fanatics 
of  Asia  hut  even  Europeans  gave  credence,  and 
the  unfortunates  were  persecuted  and  murdered, 
so  that  the  nineteenth  century  seemed  to  have 
heen  transformed  into  the  sixteenth.  The  Jew- 
ish blood  that  flowed  in  Disraeli's  veins  was  fired, 
and  he  wrote  this  vindication,  serving  thus  three 
purposes  :  first,  to  show  that  he  belonged  to  the 
oldest  nobility  of  the  world,  and  that  when  his 
enemies  belittled  him  because  he  was  a  Jew  it 
was  theirs  to  keep  silent,  for  his  ancestors  had 
dwelt  in  palaces  when  theirs  had  roamed  about 
in  the  forests,  companions  of  the  wild  beasts ; 
secondly,  to  speak  a  word  in  favor  of  full  eman- 
cipation by  dispelling  the  prevalent  thought 
that  the  condition  of  the  Jews  was  due  to  Di- 
vine wrath ;  thirdly,  to  preach  his  doctrine  of 
the  superiority  of  pure  race  and  blood. 

It  is  not  my  object  now  to  go  into  any  discus- 
sion of  the  relative  merits  of  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity, but  this  much  may  be  said  in  regard  to 
Disraeli's  effort  to  offer  reasons  why  Christians' 
opinions  are  unjust,  that  all  apologetics  of  this 
kind  are  unscientific ;  they  base  upon  a  false 
theological  conception;  the  true  position  and 
condition  of  affairs  in  Judea  at  the  time  of 
Christ  must  be  understood  before  any  argu- 
ments can  be  brought  forth.  This  is  neither 
the  time  nor  opportunity  to  present  this  pic- 


118  THE  JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

ture,  which  I  hope  to  do  at  some  future  day. 
In  this,  however,  the  author  was  correct,  that 
the  whole  usually  accepted  Christian  thought 
on  this  subject  is  distorted  and  perverted;  it 
understands  not  Judaism  of  that  time  nor  of  to- 
day; it  understands  not  the  rise  or  origin  of 
Christianity;  that  it  was  a  mixture  of  Judaism 
and  Faganism ;  "  a  Judaism  for  the  masses,"  as 
our  author  well  says ;  that  Paul,  and  not  Jesus, 
is  the  real  founder  of  Christianity.  Disraeli, 
being  a  Christian  in  outward  form  at  least,  views 
Calvary  as  the  grand  closing  scene  of  the  divine 
drama  begun  on  Sinai,  and  according  to  this  has 
all  his  conceptions  shaped.  He  merely  takes  the 
accepted  theological  interpretations  for  granted, 
and  goes  upon  them.  All  honor  to  him,  that  in 
his  rising  power,  at  the  time  when  they  most 
needed  the  help  of  the  great  and  the  influential, 
he  forgot  not  the  stock  from  which  he  sprang. 
All  honor  to  him,  that  even  in  the  zenith  of  his 
glory,  many  years  later,  at  the  Congress  of  Ber- 
lin, which  for  the  time  settled  the  destinies  of 
Europe,  one  of  the  points  upon  which  he,  as 
Premier  of  England,  the  head  of  Europe's  proud- 
est aristocracy,  insisted,  was  that  Roumania 
should  and  must  grant  equal  rights  to  all,  this 
having  special  reference  to  the  Jews,  who  had 
thore  been  so  cruelly  persecuted. 

There  are  several  points,  however,  in  which 
the  conservative  statesman  permitted  his  opin- 
ions to  be  shaped  by  his  political  preferences. 


VH.    "  CONINGSBT  "  AND  "  TANCRED."          119 

In  one  place  he  says :  "  The  Jews  are  essentially 
Tories.  Toryism  is  but  copied  from  the  mighty 
prototype  which  has  fashioned  Europe."  And 
in  another,  "  They  are  a  living  and  the  most 
striking  evidence  of  the  falsity  of  that  pernicious 
doctrine  of  modern  times — the  natural  equality 
of  man.  The  native  tendency  of  the  Jewish 
race,  who  are  justly  proud  of  their  blood,  is 
against  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  man. 
All  the  tendencies  of  the  Jewish  race  are  con- 
servative." The  Jews  of  old,  with  their  national 
surroundings,  their  narrow  idea  of  being  the 
chosen  people,  their  looking  down  upon  the 
heathen,  were  representatives  of  these  ideas. 
Their  descendants,  however,  have  been  trained 
for  centuries  in  the  bitter  school  of  adversity,  and 
though  always  on  the  side  of  order  and  govern- 
ment and  quiet,  it  is  with  them  we  may  say  as 
with  all  others,  some  will  be  found  in  Con- 
servative, others  in  Liberal  ranks;  their  opin- 
ions are  due  not  to  descent  but  to  circumstances. 
In  England,  many  Jews  will  be  found  leaning  to 
the  Conservative  side;  and,  judging  from  his 
own  surroundings,  Disraeli  was  correct  in  his 
conclusions.  In  Germany,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  are  among  the  levelers,  or,  at  least,  the 
Liberals ;  Heine,  born  in  an  earlier  day ;  Lasker, 
a  Liberal  leader  in  our  time ;  Marx  and  Lassalle, 
the  apostles  of  Socialism.  In  France,  the  same 
phenomenon  greets  us.  In  Italy,  they  are  on  the 
side  of  freedom.  So  that  as  the  same  fact  has 


120  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

met  us  so  often  before,  their  work  and  their  po- 
sition, here,  too,  is  due  to  the  man  and  not  the 
Jew.  The  Jews  can  not  be  classed  altogether ; 
in  one  country  they  will  act  thus,  in  another 
thus;  they  are  guided  and  governed  as  other 
men  are.  The  Jews  in  this  country  are  among 
the  most  outspoken  opponents  of  Socialism ;  in 
Russia,  many  will  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  Nihil- 
ism; in  England,  they  are  mostly  of  the  Monte- 
fiore  stamp,  rigidly  conservative  in  religion, 
hence  also  in  politics ;  in  Germany,  they  follow 
the  wave  of  Liberal  thought ;  they  are  no  longer 
one  community;  to  class  them  altogether  is  ab- 
surd. The  same  motives  do  not  actuate  them ; 
the  same  opinions  do  not  sway  them ;  the  old 
proverb,  "All  Israel  are  brethren,"  holds  neither 
in  politics  nor  in  social  considerations,  in 
nothing  but  in  their  religion.  Therefore  is 
Disraeli  exceedingly  narrow  and  unapprecia- 
tive  of  the  true  position  of  the  Jews  when 
he  classes  them  altogether  in  a  passage  like 
the  following:  "They  may  be  traced  in  the 
last  outbreak  of  the  destructive  principle  in  Eu- 
rope. An  insurrection  takes  place  against  tra- 
dition and  aristocracy,  against  religion  and 
property.  Destruction  of  the  Semitic  principle, 
extirpation  of  the  Jewish  religion,  whether  in 
the  Mosaic  or  Christian  form,  the  natural  equal- 
ity of  man  and  the  abrogation  of  property,  are 
proclaimed  by  the  secret  socities,  who  form  pro- 
visional governments,  and  men  of  the  Jewish 


vn.  "CONINGSBY"  AND  "TANCRED."       121 

race  are  found  at  the  head  of  every  one  of  them. 
The  people  of  God  co-operate  with  atheists,  the 
most  skillful  accumulators  of  property  ally  them- 
selves with  communists,  the  peculiar  and  chosen 
race  touch  the  hand  of  all  the  scum  and  low 
castes  of  Europe !  And  all  this  because  they 
wish  to  destroy  that  ungrateful  Christendom 
which  owes  to  them  even  its  name,  and  whose 
tyranny  they  can  no  longer  endure."  Here 
speaks  the  English  aristocrat  in  sweeping  terms, 
failing  to  make  the  vital  distinction  between  Jew 
and  Jew  as  he  would  between  man  and  man. 
For  centuries  they  have  been  reared  among  differ- 
ing influences,  and  these  influences  tell.  Anglo- 
Saxon  in  England,  Anglo-Saxon  in  North  Ger- 
many, Anglo-Saxon  in  America,  for  example,  will 
not  be  judged  by  the  same  standards.  They  are 
now  respectively  English,  German,  and  Ameri- 
can ;  and  so  it  is  with  the  Jews,  they,  too,  have 
mightily  changed  since  they  were  all  one  nation 
in  little  Palestine.  They  are  so  no  more.  How 
different  the  ideas  concerning  this  Jewish  stock 
are  among  different  thinkers !  With  Disraeli 
they  are  Tories,  born  aristocrats,  the  strongest 
refutation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  man. 
Let  me  quote  another,  who  stands  on  quite  a  dif- 
ferent platform.  We  are  told,  "  It  was  from  J  udea 
that  there  arose  the  most  persistent  protests 
against  inequality  and  the  most  ardent  aspira- 
tions after  justice  that  have  ever  raised  human- 
ity out  of  the  actual  into  the  ideal.  We  feel 


122  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

the  effect  still.  It  is  thence  has  come  the  leaven 
of  revolution  which  still  moves  the  world.  Job 
saw  evil  triumphant,  and  yet  believed  in  justice. 
Israel's  prophets,  while  thundering  against  in- 
iquity, announced  the  good  time  coming." 
(Lavelaye,  "  Socialism  of  To-day,"  Introduction, 
XVI.)  Both  opinions  are  right,  as  applied  to 
later  Jews.  There  are  aristocrats  among  them 
and  Socialists,  but,  be  it  remembered,  not  as 
Jews. 

There  is  yet  another  conception  in  which  Dis- 
raeli is  exceedingly  narrow.  In  a  conversation 
with.  Sidonia,  Tancred  says :  "  I  have  for  a  time 
suspected  that  inspiration  is  not  only  a  divine, 
but  a  local  quality,"  and  Sidonia  answers :  "  I 
believe  that  God  spoke  to  Moses  on  Mount 
Horeb,  and  you  believe  that  he  was  crucified  in 
the  person  of  Jesus  on  Mount  Calvary.  Both 
were  children  of  Israel  and  spoke  Hebrew  to  the 
Hebrews.  The  prophets  were  only  Hebrews. 
The  apostles  were  only  Hebrews.  It  is  a  part 
of  the  divine  scheme  that  its  influence  shall  only 
be  local."  And  therefore  Tancred  determines 
to  visit  Jerusalem  to  inhale  some  of  that  inspira- 
tion, which  is  denied  to  Europe  and  rests  on  the 
Eastern  lands,  where  God's  word  came  to  man. 
He  is  told,  when  speaking  of  this  same  fact  of 
the  localism  of  inspiration  with  an  Arab  sheikh, 
"  Be  sure  that  God  never  spoke  to  any  one  but 
an  Arab."  How  narrow  a  thought !  How  con- 
tracted a  mental  vision !  What !  the  inspiration 


VH.  "CONINGSBY"  AND  "TANCRED."      123 

from  the  Universal  Spirit  is  confined  to  one 
little  tract  of  land.  What !  the  inspiration  from 
God  was  vested  in  but  a  few  souls,  and  then  died 
out  never  to  appear  among  mankind  again.  Not 
alone  Tancred  thought  this,  but  there  are  myr- 
iads who  think  that  since  the  last  of  the  prophets 
inspiration  has  disappeared  from  among  men. 
Away  with  so  distressing  a  thought !  Inspira- 
tion is  not  dead.  Inspiration  is  confined  to  no 
time  and  to  no  clime.  Not  the  Hebrew  prophets 
alone  were  inspired ;  every  man  who  has  been 
blessed  with  the  divine  gift  of  genius  has  been 
inspired.  No  matter  whether  as  poets  or  as 
philosophers,  no  matter  whether  as  thinkers  or 
as  workers,  the  whole  long  list  of  the  world's 
great  men  who  have  risen  far  above  their  fellow- 
men,  whose  minds  had  that  quality  which  we 
call  genius,  and  which  we  can  not  explain,  have 
had  the  divine  aiflatus  breathed  into  their  souls. 
Yes,  Isaiah  was  inspired,  but  so  was  also  Socra- 
tes, and  Plato,  and  Shakespeare,  and  Milton,  and 
Newton,  and  Kant,  and  Goethe,  and  Schiller, 
though  in  a  different  sense ;  there  is  a  difference 
of  degree. 

Yes,  as  religious  geniuses,  Israel's  prophets 
stand  unapproached;  three  thousand  years  ago 
they  uttered  the  truths  to  which  mankind  is  but 
now  gradually  coming.  But  inspiration  died 
not  out  with  them.  Inspiration  is  not  local,  in- 
spiration is  not  temporal ;  from  the  frigid  zones 
unto  the  tropics,  from  the  beginning  of  time 


124  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

unto  our  day,  which  so  many  with  Disraeli 
bewail  as  being  so  helplessly  degenerate,  God's 
voice  is  heard  in  the  utterances  of  the  choice 
ones  of  the  earth.  Neither  Judaism,  nor  Chris- 
tianity, nor  Mohammedanism,  nor  Buddhism, 
can  lay  claim  exclusively  to  inspiration,  as  in 
former  days  each  and  every  one  did  for  itself; 
it  belongs  to  man,  and  He  from  whom  inspira- 
tion flows,  is  the  God  of  humanity.  .Disraeli's 
fervent  belief  in  race  again  led  him  astray  here ; 
he  speaks  of  the  great  Asian  mystery,  as  if  from 
Asia  alone  great  movements  can  go  forth,  for 
only  in  Asia  has  God  appeared.  If  any  thing, 
Asia  is  dead ;  it  changes  not ;  it  stands  to-day 
where  it  did  a  thousand  years  ago.  From  the 
western  lands  new  thoughts  and  impulses  pro- 
ceed. Some  grand  Asiatic  scheme  always 
seemed  to  float  before  his  mind.  In  "  David 
Alroy,"  another  Jewish  novel,  an  Eastern  rhap- 
sody, he  hints  it.  In  these  novels  he  further 
speaks  of  an  Asian  movement;  perhaps  with 
this  conception  is  connected  his  desire  of  nam- 
ing the  Queen  of  England  Empress  of  India,  and 
his  fulfillment  of  that  desire.  Perhaps  he  dreamt 
of  some  grand  Asian  Empire  from  which  would 
go  forth  the  impulse  that  would  settle  the  dis- 
tracted state  of  Europe. 

Disraeli's  conception  of  the  Jews  is  what 
might  naturally  be  expected  from  one  who  by 
inclination,  by  circumstance,  by  the  natural  bent 
of  his  mind,  leant  toward  conservatism  in  thought 


vii.    "CONINGSBY"  AND  "  TANCRED."      125 

and  in  action.  To  him  they  were  the  firm  up- 
holders of  tradition  and  stable  principle.  The 
reformed  and  liberal  movement  among  them  he 
did  not  appreciate ;  he  looked  upon  them  as  a 
race  in  contradistinction  to  their  religion,  in- 
stead of  feeling  that  it  is  only  as  religious  com- 
munities that  they  exist  as  Jews;  but  he  was 
their  ardent  defender  at  the  time  when  such 
defense  was  necessary.  In  this  popular  form 
he  may  have  and  he  did  open  the  eyes  of  many 
a  Christian  to  truths,  which,  if  they  had  been 
uttered  at  all,  were  buried  in  volumes  which 
never  reached  the  masses.  He  was  himself  a 
representative  of  the  characteristics  he  gave  to 
the  Jews.  The  novels  are  one  long  panegyric 
of  Jewish  greatness  and  an  appeal  to  the  Chris- 
tians to  stop  and  think  of  the  relations  between 
the  two  religions  before  they  judge  hastily. 

Judaism,  however,  looks  higher  than  he  por- 
trayed it.  Freed  from  the  shackles  of  national 
and  political  existence,  above  time  and  place,  in 
its  purity  it  expresses  the  thought  of  the  One, 
the  great  I  Am,  universal  and  unconfined ;  spir- 
ituality pure,  it  stands  as  the  exponent  of  the 
magnificent  conception  of  its  prophet  of  old,  the 
unity  of  mankind,  the  unity  of  God. 


126  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 


VIII.     GEORGE    ELIOT'S    "DANIEL 
RONDA." 

I. 

The  deepest  thinker  among  English  women, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  of  fictionists,  toward 
the  close  of  her  author-career,  wrote  a  novel 
which,  for  uniqueness  of  theme  and  treatment  is 
interesting,  for  thought  and  reasoning  is  remark- 
able, for  learning  is  striking.  Other  novels  had 
been  written  with  Jews  as  characters,  but  they 
were  mostly  superficial  in  conception  ;  this  was 
the  first  by  a  n  on -Jewish  writer  that  made 
Judaism  a  study.  "  Daniel  Deronda "  met 
with  a  varying  reception  at  different  hands. 
The  critics  pronounced  it  a  failure ;  some  ridi- 
culed, others  called  it  weak ;  the  world  read  and 
did  not  understand.  The  subject  was  too  un- 
known, too  peculiar,  too  much  out  of  the  range 
of  the  common,  to  be  perfectly,  or  even  partially 
grasped.  The  novelist  had  taken  a  bold  step. 
She  had  written  an  "  epic  in  prose."  The  sub- 
ject was  grand  enough  for  any  epic ;  it  dealt 
with  large  forces,  with  the  questions  of  race  and 
religion.  "  Daniel  Deronda  "  is  not  George  Eliot's 
most  popular  book,  but  it  is  her  greatest  and 
most  matured.  It  was  the  last  child  of  her 
genius,  and  it  was  worthy  of,  it  overtopped  its 
predecessors. 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."     127 

The  Jewish  race,  its  restoration  to  Palestine, 
its  taking  its  stand  in  the  great  commonwealth 
of  nations,  form  the  burden  of  the  work.  The 
subject  of  race  seemed  to  be  a  congenial  one  to 
her  mind.  Years  before  she  had  written  a 
dramatic  poem,  "  The  Spanish  Gypsy,"  and 
there  the  same  ideal  appears,  the  gathering  of 
the  wandering  Zingali  tribes  into  one  nation 
with  their  own  land.  Zarca  is  the  Mordecai, 
Fedalma  the  Deronda.  But  the  earlier  work 
has  not  the  power  of  the  later.  It  appears  only  as 
the  seed  that  oped  and  ripened  into  the  full  fruit 
of  the  novel.  All  her  novels  have  a  religious 
element,  but  in  grandeur,  power,  and  might, 
there  is  but  one  of  her  characters  that  can  ap- 
proach the  ideal  conception  of  Mordecai,  and 
that  is  the  magnificent  figure  of  Savanarola  in 
Romola. 

A  cursory  reading  of  the  novel  will  at  once 
disclose  the  fact  that  it  consists  of  two  distinct 
portions ;  of  the  one,  Gwendolen  Ilarleth 
is  the  central  figure,  of  the  other  Mordecai. 
Daniel  Deronda  is  the  binding  link  between  the 
two  parts.  The  former  portion  it  lies  not  within 
my  province  to  discuss ;  I  will  turn  at  once  to 
the  other,  the  Jewish  parts. 

The  author  did  not  approach  her  task  without 
preparation.  As  before  writing  her  novel,  Ro- 
mola, she  is  said  to  have  spent  many  a  day  in 
Florence  studying  and  observing,  frequenting 
the  repositories  of  medieval  art  and  learning, 


128  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

gaining  a  knowledge  of  time  and  place  so  that 
her  novel  stands  as  a  monument  to  her  industry 
and  learning,  and  is  authoritative  for  the  period 
treated,  so  too,  in  preparation  for  the  writing  of 
Daniel  Deronda,  did  she  store  her  great  mind 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  Jewish  past,  and  a 
keen  observance  of  earlier  Jewish  customs.  We 
are  astonished  at  the  exactitude  of  her  state- 
ments ;  there  are  but  few  errors,  which  can  be 
readily  condoned.  She  describes  the  observance 
of  the  Friday  eve  in  the  home.  She  takes  us  into 
a  synagogue  of  Frankfort,  and  remarks  upon  the 
service  there  conducted ;  she  describes  for  us  a 
marriage  scene  as  it  was,  and  tells  us  of  the  last 
words  of  the  Jew  before  death — the  confession 
of  the  Divine  unity.  We  learn  from  her  pages 
of  that  wonderful  bit  of  autobiography  of  the 
Polish  Jew,  Solomon  Maimon.  She  has  delved 
into  Jewish  history,  and  we  are  carried  along  by 
the  passionate  recountal  of  the  wrongs  inflicted 
on  the  Jews,  the  sufferings  and  persecutions. 
Here  and  there  a  legend  is  told  from  the  Jewish 
writings,  the  Talmud,  or  Midrash  ;  again  we 
have  a  sentence  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  a  sage 
of  old.  That  strange  product  of  Jewish  mys- 
ticism, the  Kabbala,  is  referred  to,  and  the  divi- 
sion of  Jews  into  Rabbanites  and  Karaites  is 
cited.  Jehudah  Halevi's  word,  with  which  we 
have  already  met  in  her  "  Spanish  Gypsy,"  is 
again  quoted,  "  the  Jewish  nation  is  the  heart  of 
the  nations;"  Ibn  Ezra,  too,  is  noticed.  The 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."     129 

great  Jewish  thought  is  given  expression  to, 
that  the  unity  of  God  presupposes  the  unity  of 
mankind.  There  is,  too,  all  the  weight  of 
thought  necessary  for  so  great  a  subject ;  the 
same  close  reasoning,  the  same  psychological 
analysis  that  characterized  her  earlier  works,  re- 
appear. She  came  to  the  task  well  equipped. 
How  did  she  fulfill  the  task  ?  Does  her  presen- 
tation do  justice  to  the  thoughts  and  ideals  of 
the  Jews  ?  Did  she  correctly  grasp  the  tendency 
of  the  Judaism  of  to-day  ?  Are  the  characters 
she  presents  as  Jewish  drawn  from  life,  and  do 
they  evince  a  true  knowledge  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  character  ? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  we  must 
gather  from  a  close  study  of  the  pages  of  the 
work.  Most  of  these  Jewish  characters  we  can 
dismiss  with  a  few  words;  two  only,  besides 
Mordecai,  offer  opportunity  for  larger  treat- 
ment— Deronda  and  Mirah.  The  Cohen  family, 
with  whom  Mordecai  lodges,  give  to  the  tale  the 
only  humorous  element,  with  the  exception  of 
the  oddities  of  Hans  Meyrick.  It  is  a  family 
such  as  you  can  meet  any  where  in  the  large 
cities,  a  family  of  Jews  made  much  what  they 
are  by  circumstances.  The  father,  Ezra  Cohen, 
is  a  brisk,  prosperous  merchant,  embodying 
much  of  the  old  trading  spirit,  boastful  of  his 
success,  proud  of  his  business ;  his  son  Jacob, 
with  his  trading  propensities  bids  fair  to  become 
what  his  father  is.  The  old  mother  carries,  "  be- 


130  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

neath  a  rough  exterior,  the  affection  that  abides 
in  Jewish  hearts,  as  a  sweet  odor  in  things  long 
crushed  and  hidden  from  the  outer  air."  Ig- 
norant as  the  family  is,  commonplace  as  is  their 
life,  material  as  are  their  pursuits,  they  yet  have 
something  left  of  a  traditional  ideality. 

They  give  a  home  to  Mordecai,  the  poor 
scholar,  and  with  them  he  is  welcome  until  the 
end.  The  sentiment,  that  learning  shows  superi- 
ority, and  the  involuntary  regard  for  the  learned 
man,  however  mean  and  lowly  his  exterior,  so 
well  brought  out  here,  well  attest  the  attitude 
of  the  Jews  in  the  most  troubled  times  in  this 
matter.  After  country  and  temple  were  lost, 
the  nobility  that  was  recognized  as  occupying 
the  first  rank,  was  that  of  learning.  The  wise 
man  was  the  most  honored  of  the  community. 
While  for  centuries,  during  the  Dark  Ages,  the 
surrounding  world  was  sunk  in  ignorance  and 
the  magic  wand  of  superstition  held  all  beneath 
its  enslaving  sway,  the  bright  light  of  learning 
diffused  its  rays  among  the  Jews,  and  ever  after, 
even  among  the  lowly  and  untaught  of  their 
number,  there  was  kept  alive  this  thought  of 
the  greatness  of  knowledge.  There  uncon- 
sciously *  reappears  in  this  ignorant  family  this 
respect  for  learning  and  the  feeling  that  there  is 
blessing  in  having  the  scholar  beneath  the  roof 
and  at  the  board.  There  is  expressed  too  in 
their  language  and  dealings,  though  not  so  re- 


VIII.   GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      131 

fined  and  cultured,  something  of  the  kindness 
of  heart,  a  Jewish  trait  in  all  times. 

Deronda's  mother,  feeling  what  it  was  to  have 
"  a  man's  force  of  genius,  and  yet  to  suffer  the 
slavery  of  being  a  girl,"  not  daring  disobey  her 
father,  a  man  of  iron  will,  repressed  by  all  the 
legalism  of  the  old  Jewish  life,  to  gain  freedom 
broke  loose  from  it,  and  determined  that  her  son 
should  be  raised  as  an  English  Christian,  not  as 
a  Jew;  he  should  never  know  the  restrictions 
and  miseries  she  had  experienced.  She  is  but 
one  of  that  great  number  who,  in  the  earlier 
decades  of  this  century,  having  no  love  for  Ju- 
daism— seeing  not  its  ideal  side,  feeling  only  that 
it  prevented  them  at  that  time  from  pursuing 
a  desired  career,  readily  threw  it  off  for  mate- 
rial advantages.  Among  those  who  can  be 
named  are  Heine,  Borne,  Gans,  the  daughters  of 
Mendelssohn,  Fanny  Lewald,  and  others  less 
noted.  The  very  circumstance  of  having  been 
born  a  Jew  was  then  sufficient  to  close  every 
career  to  the  ambitious,  and  this,  coupled  with 
the  fact  that  Judaism  had  become,  in  a  great 
measure,  a  mass  of  forms  and  ceremonies  no 
longer  consistent  with  life,  brought  about  this 
sad  result,  that  many,  no  longer  seeing  any 
thing  in  the  religion  but  a  formalism  and  a  legal- 
ism,  turned  from  it  and  adopted  Christianity — 
not  from  conviction,  but  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  this  was  the  "  open  sesame  "  which  un- 
barred the  gates  of  the  world  to  them.  This 


132  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

state  of  affairs,  too,  opened  the  eyes  of  others, 
to  whom  Judaism  was  still  something  more  than 
a  name ;  and  they,  appreciating  the  needs  of  the 
time  and  and  of  the  people,  instituted  the  reform 
movement,  which  since  then  has  accomplished  so 
much.  As  one  of  those  who  felt  only  the  re- 
strictions of  Jewish  legalism,  but  were  unmoved 
by  any  of  its  great  thoughts  and  conceptions, 
Deronda's  mother  is  presented.  As  intense  a 
Jew  as  her  father  had  been,  so  intense  was  her 
feeling  the  other  way. 

In  introducing  her  as  a  great  singer,  and 
Klesmer  as  a  remarkable  pianist,  and  Mirah  with 
her  perfect  voice,  the  author  seems  to  point  to 
the  fact  of  the  greatness  of  the  Jews  in  music 
and  in  song,  the  only  manner  in  which  a  people, 
so  greatly  gifted  in  many  ways  and  directions, 
could  give  expression  to  the  aesthetic  sense.  It 
is  evident  why  there  could  be  no  sculptors  or 
painters  among  the  Jews  in  ancient  or  medieval 
times,  for  well-nigh  all  the  works  of  art  treated 
subjects  of  a  religious  character,  and  the  Jews, 
with  their  strict  monotheism  and  the  literal 
interpretation  of  the  second  commandment, 
could  naturally  pursue  none  of  the  plastic  arts. 
Hence,  music  and  poetry  were  the  only  chan- 
nels in  which  the  aesthetic  nature  among  them 
could  develop  itself.  In  our  later  day,  however, 
when  all  subjects  are  brought  within  the  scope 
of  these  arts,  and  when  it  is  felt  that  the 
faahioning  of  figures  daes  not  indicate  idolatry, 


VHt.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."    133 

as  was  the  conception  of  an  earlier  time,  many  a 
Jew  has  gained  distinction  in  these  branches. 
Jewish  this  woman  is  not  at  all.  She  has  no 
affection ;  she  loved  nothing  but  her  voice — now 
that  it  is  gone,  she  has  nothing  to  live  for. 
Deronda  is  to  her  a  beautiful  creature,  nothing 
more ;  not  a  pulse  of  maternal  affection  throbs 
when  she  sees  him  the  first  time  after  a  lapse  of 
many  years ;  she,  with  her  coldness,  her  antipa- 
thy to  every  thing  Jewish,  is  an  admirable  foil 
to  the  other  Jewish  woman  of  the  book,  Mirah, 
^11  warmth,  all  affection,  all  love. 

With  Mirah,  the  Jewish  character  is  first  in- 
troduced, and  in  her  person  a  beautiful  character 
it  is — beautiful  in  every  way,  in  her  actions,  in 
the  affection  for  her  mother's  memory,  in  the 
pity  and  sympathy  for  her  scapegrace  father. 
An  artistic  soul,  seeming  to  have  gathered 
within  her  nature  all  the  beauty,  without  a 
blemish,  one  perfect  whole,  finely  strung,  a  sym- 
pathetic heart,  for  her  it  is  "  much  easier  to  share 
in  love  than  in  hatred.  Her  religion  is  of  one 
fiber  with  her  affections."  It  is  deep-seated  in 
her,  'Mid  evil  and  temptation,  she  had  kept 
herself  pure.  The  hallowing  influence  of  her 
life  had  come  from  the  spirit  of  her  whose  every 
accent  she  remembered  as  fraught  with  a  moth- 
er's love.  Her  Mirah  always  had  in  her  mind. 
They  could  never  be  really  parted.  She  wished 
to  be  a  good  Jewess,  because  her  mother  had 
been,  She  reasoned  no  more  about  it.  The  fact 


134  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

was  there.  She  says,  when  spoken  to  about 
becoming  a  Christian :  "  I  will  never  separate 
myself  from  my  mother's  people.  I  was  forced 
to  fly  from  my  father,  but  if  he  came  back  in 
age,  and  in  weakness,  and  in  want,  and  needed 
me,  should  I  say,  i  This  is  not  my  father?'  If 
he  had  shame,  I  must  share  it.  It  was  he  who 
was  given  to  me  for  my  father,  and  not  another. 
And  so  it  is  with  my  people.  I  will  always  be  a 
Jewess.  I  will  love  Christians  when  they  are 
good,  like  you,  but  I  will  always  cling  to  my 
people.  I  will  always  worship  with  them."  So 
it  is  throughout,  that  fervid  Jewish  feeling  which 
is  hers. 

It  is  inborn.  She  has  drunk  it  in  with  her 
mother's  milk  in  her  mother's  home.  Oh  !  that 
Jewish  home,  the  remembrance  of  which  passed 
before  her  mind  like  a  beautiful  vision.  Early 
had  she  been  stolen  from  that  mother's  side,  but 
she  thinks  her  "  life  began  with  waking  up  and 
loving  my  mother's  face ;  it  was  so  near  to  me, 
and  her  arms  were  round  me  and  she  sung  to 
me.  One  hymn  she  sang  so  often,  so  often  ;  and 
then  she  taught  me  to  sing  it  with  her — it  was 
the  first  I  ever  sung.  They  were  always  Hebrew 
hymns  she  sung ;  and  because  I  never  knew  the 
meaning  of  the  words  they  seemed  full  of  noth- 
ing but  our  love  and  happiness.  When  I  lay  in 
my  little  bed,  and  it  was  all  white  above  me,  she 
used  to  bend  over  me  between  me  and  the  white 
and  sing  in  a  sweet,  low  voice.'7  Thus  is  Mirah,  all 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      135 

memory,  all  affection,  the  spirit  of  conservatism ; 
she  represents  all  that  was  beautiful  in  the  old 
Jewish  customs  without  any  of  the  narrowness — 
the  love  and  affection  of  the  Jewish  home,  un- 
tainted and  untouched  by  the  miseries  of  the  outer 
world.  She  appears  like  some  vision  of  all  that 
was  fair  and  tender  in  the  past,  with  none  of  the 
hardness  and  harshness.  She  reminds  us  of  some 
pure  Jewish  maiden  of  old,  a  Sulamith  perhaps, 
in  modern  guise,  moving  among  modern  figures, 
but  her  soul  is  in  the  past.  The  doubting,  inquir- 
ing spirit  of  the  present  has  not  touched  her — 
she  is  the  picture  of  childlike  faith.  She  is  a 
woman  of  women,  with  only  womanly  qualities; 
in  all  the  vicissitudes  of  a  changing  life  she  re- 
tains her  innocence  and  sweetness.  From  her, 
however,  we  learn  naught  of  Jewish  conceptions. 
She  is  well  pictured  as  the  Jewish  woman  of  the 
past,  who  took  no  interest  in  religious  specula- 
tions or  discussions.  The  Jewish  woman  was 
the  central  figure  of  all  home  scenes,  one  of  the 
vital  elements  of  the  life  of  Judaism,  in  truth,  of 
all  religion.  She  stood  for  the  sentiment  as  the 
man  represented  the  intellect.  Honored  and  be- 
loved was  she  as  wife  and  mother,  as  the  guard- 
ian spirit  of  the  home,  but  outside  of  this  she 
took  but  little  part  in  religious  discussions  and 
doings.  This  belonged  to  the  men,  and  for  this 
we  must  look  to  the  men  in  our  novel.  Daniel 
Deronda  and  Mordecai  embody  the  ideas  of  the 


136  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

book,  which  with  startling  novelty  to  the  greater 
public  were  so  vividly  expressed. 

Daniel  Deronda  is  presented  to  us  as  a  won- 
derful character,  well-nigh  as  perfect  as  man  can 
be  drawn.  "  There  was  scarcely  a  delicacy  of 
feeling  of  which  he  was  not  capable."  "  His 
inborn  lovingness  was  strong  enough  to  keep 
itself  on  a  level  with  resentment."  "In  him 
the  sense  of  injury  bred — not  the  will  to  in- 
flict injuries,  but  a  hatred  of  all  injury." 
"From  boyhood  up  he  was  actuated  by  sym- 
pathy for  all,  a  sympathy  that  shaped  his  nat- 
ure, and  was  the  chief  and  great  characteristic 
in  his  intercourse  with  others."  "  This  sym- 
pathy always  impelled  him  toward  the  unfor- 
tunate, and  caused  him  to  withdraw  almost 
coldly  from  the  fortunate.  He  had  a  passion  for 
pelted  people."  "  He  had  a  stamp  of  rarity  in 
a  subdued  fervor  of  sympathy,  an  activity  of  im- 
agination in  behalf  of  others  which  did  not  show 
itself  offensively,  but  was  continually  seen  in  acts 
of  consideration  which  struck  his  companions  as 
moral  eccentricity."  "  His  conscience  included 
sensibilities  far  beyond  the  common,  and  persons 
were  attracted  to  him  in  proportion  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  defending  them."  Here  then  was  this 
exceptional  character  placed  in  humdrum  En- 
glish society.  His  soul  "  striving  for  an  ideal — 
for  he  was  early  impassioned  by  ideas,  and  burned 
his  fire  on  these  heights — could  not  be  satisfied 
with  the  common  objects  of  life  which  content 


viii.  GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "DANIEL  DERONDA."    137 

most  men."  "  He  had  no  desire  to  pass  through 
life  as  did  his  neighbor."  As  he  had  a  "  yearning 
for  wide  knowledge,  so  too  was  he  possessed  of 
dreams  of  a  wide  activity."  In  the  material  age 
of  unfaith  he  looked  in  vain  for  such  a  lofty 
object  of  life.  "  There  was  danger  that,  owing 
to  irresoluteness,  there  would  be  paralyzed  in 
him  the  indignation  against  wrong ;  there  was 
danger  that  in  mere  thought  and  inaction  his 
energies  would  be  dissipated,  that  in  looking 
and  searching  for  an  ideal  he  would  waste  his 
life."  He  was  not  one  of  those  who  found  his 
work  in  the  common  walks  of  life,  among  men, 
in  the  market,  in  the  street ;  what  he  longed  for 
was  "  some  external  event  or  some  inward  light 
that  would  urge  him  into  a  definite  line  of  action 
and  compress  his  wandering  energy."  We  must 
confess  that  with  all  the  elaborateness  and  detail 
with  which  the  character  is  drawn,  with  all  the 
minute  analysis  of  motive  and  action,  which  was 
expended  in  fashioning  this  figure  of  manhood, 
Deronda  is  not,  as  portrayed,  equal  to  the  task 
which  he  is  made  to  consider  his  life's  aim  and 
mission.  He  is  not  made  of  the  stuff  out  of 
which  heroes  or  leaders  are  fashioned.  He  is 
afraid  to  appear  exceptional,  a  grievous  fault  in 
one  that  would  accomplish  a  great  work.  He 
has  all  the  sympathy  necessary,  but  not  the 
power.  He  always  requires  a  guiding  hand.  He 
is  awakened  to  his  mission  in  life  by  Mordecai. 
He  is  fashioned  by  the  powers  of  this  master 


138  THE    JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

mind.  Here,  then,  is  a  mission  upon  which  he 
can  concentrate  his  energies.  Before  he  knows 
that  he  is  a  Jew  he  is  interested  by  Mirah  and 
by  Mordecai.  His  feelings  of  sympathy  had 
drawn  him  to  the  girl  whom  he  had  rescued  when 
in  distress,  and  through  his  sympathy  for  her  he 
had  come  into  contact  with  Mordecai.  From 
the  first  he  had  felt  interested  in  the  consump- 
tive Hebrew  scholar  and  enthusiast.  George 
Eliot  certainly  believed  in  a  spiritual  kinship,  in 
a  speaking  of  soul  unto  soul,  for  in  the  first 
meeting  of  Dcronda  and  Mordecai  in  the  book- 
shop the  latter  felt  unconsciously  drawn  to  the 
former ;  and  in  their  later  meeting,  on  the  bridge, 
there  is  intimated  an  ideal  relationship,  a  soul 
longing,  that  convinced  Mordecai  that  this  was 
his  spiritual  brother,  who  would  carry  out  his 
desire,  that  their  souls  would  join  in  the  grand 
work,  as  Mordecai  expressed  it,  before  Deronda 
has  learned  the  story  of  his  family  and  his  birth, 
"And  you  would  have  me  consider  it  doubtful 
whether  you  were  born  a  Jew.  Have  we  not 
from  the  first  touched  each  other  with  invisible 
fibers  ?  Have  we  not  quivered  together  like  the 
leaves  from  a  common  stem,  with  strivings  from 
a  common  root  ?  "  This  intense  conviction  of 
Mordecai  began  to  influence  Deronda  so  that  the 
thought  of  the  possibility  of  his  having  been 
born  a  Jew  became  more  and  more  familiar  to 
him  and  more  and  more  agreeable.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  trace  the  development  of  the  Jewish 


VIII.    GEORGE    ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      139 

consciousness  in  him,  which  he  had  not  at  the 
start. 

After  the  first  interest  in  the  Jews  had  been 
awakened  in  him  by  Mirah,  he  devoted  much 
time  to  a  subject  which  had  never  occupied  him 
before.  He  had  thought  that  "  all  cultured  Jews 
had  dropped  their  religion,  and  had  associated 
them  with  loud  wealth,  or  with  dingy  streets 
and  back  alleys."  But  he  had  never  felt  harshly 
toward  them.  His  sympathetic  nature  would 
not  permit  that.  He  began  to  study  their 
history.  He  grew  more  and  more  familiar  with 
their  ideal  life.  Mordecai's  dreams  seemed  to 
have  a  substantial  background.  So  imbued,  so 
full  was  he  of  Mordecai's  thought,  that  when  he 
went  forth  to  at  last  learn  the  particulars  of  his 
birth  and  parentage,  he  almost  hoped  that  it  be 
true  that  he  was  born  a  Jew,  for  then  he  felt 
that  he  would  have  somewhat  to  work  for.  A 
stronger  mind  had  gained  absolute  control  over 
him,  and  led  him  as  it  would.  When,  therefore, 
in  answer  to  his  mother,  who  explained  her 
course,  and  tried  to  impress  upon  him  that  it 
was  for  his  good  that  she  had  him  raised  igno- 
rant of  his  Jewish  parentage,  he  replied  that  he 
was  glad  he  was  born  a  Jew,  it  is  to  this  influence 
of  Mordecai,  as  one  of  the  causes  that  we  must 
trace  this  joy.  The  author  would  have  it  appear 
due  to  the  principle  of  heredity,  that  the  Jewish 
race  instinct  was  so  strong  in  Deronda  that  it 
overcame  every  thing  else ;  that  there  was  in  him 


140  THE   JEW   IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

an  inherited  longing,  the  effect  of  brooding, 
passionate  thoughts  in  many  ancestors.  The 
question  now  arises  whether  any  hereditary  in- 
stinct— granting  now  for  argument's  sake,  that 
there  is  a  race  instinct — is  strong  enough  to  sur- 
vive all  the  years,  the  circumstances,  the  educa- 
tion, as  it  is  represented  to  have  done  in  this 
case.  Here  is  Deronda,  reared  from  his  baby- 
hood in  the  Christian  religion,  never  hearing  a 
word  of  Jews  or  Judaism  until  he  had  reached 
his  twenty-fifth  year.  His  surroundings,  his  ed- 
ucation, his  training,  his  companions,  all  were 
not  suggestive  of  the  slightest  tinge  of  Jewish 
thought  or  life.  He  learns  comparatively  late, 
at  least  after  the  lapse  of  many  years,  that  he  is 
a  Jew,  and  his  whole  being  exults  with  joy  at 
the  fact,  he  bursts  forth  with  a  passionate  "  I  am 
glad  of  it."  This  is  scarcely  natural.  A  point 
has  been  strained.  It  was  not  the  race  instinct 
that  caused  him  to  receive  the  news  with 
pleasure.  Had  he  never  met  Mordecai  and 
Mirah,  the  information  would  not  have  aroused 
in  him  any  such  sensation,  he  would  have 
agreed  with  his  mother,  that  her  action  had 
been  for  the  best.  It  was  circumstance,  and  not 
heredity,  that  inspired  him  with  his  attitude 
toward  the  Jews.  During  his  whole  life  he  had 
met  with  commonplace  people.  For  the  first 
time  he  had  seen  and  heard  in  Mordecai  a  gen- 
uine enthusiast.  The  influence  grew  on  him; 
thought  on  the  subject  but  increased  the  influ- 


141 

ence.  Of  this  his  mother  knew  naught,  but  she 
divined  another  circumstance  which  caused  him 
to  welcome  the  assurance  of  his  Jewish  birth, 
when  she  exclaimed  during  their  last  conversa- 
tion, "  You  are  in  love  with  a  Jewess."  These 
two  facts,  then  the  wondrous  influence  of  Mor- 
decai's  superior  mind,  and  the  sympathy  of  De- 
ronda's  nature,  which  had  ripened  into  love  for 
Mirah,  explain  and  justify  his  satisfaction,  but 
not  the  principle  of  heredity  or  race  instinct, 
which,  even  if  strong,  would  have  been  overcome 
by  the  power  of  circumstance  and  education,  es- 
pecially in  a  nature  so  readily  molded,  and  so 
little  self-asserting  as  Deronda's,  even  as  he  says, 
"  The  Christian  sympathies  in  which  my  mind 
was  reared,  can  never  die  out  of  me." 

He  has  now  found  an  ideal  and  an  object ;  he 
is  a  Jew;  he  will  assimilate  Mordecai's  ideas. 
He  will  be  the  instrument  of  Mordecai's  will. 
He  will  identify  himself  as  far  as  possible  with 
his  people,  and  if  any  work  can  be  done  for 
them  that  he  can  give  his  soul  and  hand  to,  he 
will  do  it.  But  we  feel  he  will  not  do  it.  lie  is 
no  enthusiast;  he  will  do  nothing.  After  Mor- 
decai's guidance  shall  have  left  him,  he  will  be 
as  aimless  as  before.  He  will  dream  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  Mordecai's  visions,  but  he  will  never 
move  definitely  in  any  thing  requiring  action. 
He  has  not  that  strength  and  undaunted  vigor 
that  must  actuate  leaders  of  movements.  He  is 
a  Jew  because  his  sympathies  have  been  aroused ; 


142  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

because  to  one  conservative  in  sentiment  and 
feeling  as  he  is,  the  history  of  the  people  is  rich 
with  traditions  and  glorious  achievement;  be- 
cause to  one  sympathetic  as  he  is,  the  persecu- 
tions and  oppressions  to  which  they  had  been 
subjected,  appealed  strongly.  He  lives  not  in 
the  present.  His  thoughts  are  in  the  past,  or 
else  dreamily  vague  in  same  distant  future, 
which  shall  be  like  the  past.  He  is  no  pro- 
gressist. He  represents  neither  the  thought  nor 
the  work  of  the  Jew  of  the  present.  At  the  end 
of  the  book,  as  has  been  well  said,  "  when  De- 
ronda  wanders  off  to  the  East,  we  feel  sure  that  he 
will  travel  about  year  after  year,  doing  deeds  of 
kindness,  and  cherishing  noble  aspirations,  but 
further  removed  than  even  a  passionate  dreamer 
like  Mordecai  from  working  out  any  deliverance 
either  for  his  people  or  for  mankind."  He  un- 
derstands not  the  mission  of  Israel,  but  he  will 
contribute  nothing  toward  a  realization  of  even 
his  narrow  conception  of  it. 

All  these  figures  are  drawn,  as  they  should  be 
in  works  of  fiction  by  a  strong,  unprejudiced, 
powerful  mind.  The  gallery  of  portraits  upon 
which  we  have  gazed — the  gentle  Mirah,  the  pas- 
sionate princess,  Deronda's  mother,  the  thrifty 
Cohen  family,  the  sympathetic,  dreaming  De- 
ronda,  show  us  that  the  correct  idea  has  been 
grasped  that  there  is  no  one  special  passion, 
sympathy,  sentiment,  feeling,  desire,  which  is 
Jewish,  but  that  all  the  qualities  of  man  are  in 


143 

the  Jews  inherent,  as  they  are  in  all  men.  The 
Jew,  as  the  Jew  of  the  novel,  "  The  New 
Prophet,"  Mordecai  and  his  theories,  shall  now 
give  us  occasion  to  set  forth  in  how  far  the 
conception  of  Judaism,  as  presented  in  this 
work,  agrees  with  the  aim  and  ideal  of  the  re- 
ligion. 

II. 

In  undertaking  a  study  of  the  character  of 
Mordecai,  we  feel  all  the  difficulty  there  is  in 
impartially  treating  so  exceptional  a  figure.  It 
is  the  man  of  one  idea  whom  we  have  before  us, 
and  we  must  remember  that  men  of  one  idea 
are  either  monomaniacs  or  geniuses.  As  the 
former,  in  our  matter-of-fact  time,  Mordecai  has 
undoubtedly  appeared  to  some;  to  a  -few  his 
soul  seems  aflame  with  the  light  of  genius,  but 
to  the  many  he  is  inexplicable,  and  the  majority 
of  readers  feel  like  turning  over  the  pages  and 
skipping  the  Mordecai  parts  of  the  book,  or  else 
read  them  from  a  feeling  of  duty.  George  Eliot 
undertook  the  difficult  task  of  presenting  unfa- 
miliar ideas  to  the  world  in  the  novel-form.  She 
had  formed,  owing,  without  doubt,  much  to  her 
surroundings  (for  in  England  the  notions  con- 
cerning Judaism  which  she  has  set  forth  are 
generally  held),  peculiar  ideas  of  the  mission 
of  the  Jews  and  Judaism,  and  has  made  Mor- 
decai the  mouthpiece  of  her  views.  A  writer 
in  one  of  the  English  magazines,  some  years 
ago  pointed  out  what  is  most  likely  the  original 


144  THE    JEW   IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

of  Mordecai.  In  an  introduction  to  a  study  on 
Spinoza,  George  Henry  Lewes  speaks  of  a  club 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  when  a  young  man, 
which  met  on  Saturday  nights  for  the  purpose 
of  philosophical  discussions. 

This  club  reminds  one  much  of  the  Hand  and 
Banner,  of  which  Mordecai  was  a  member,  and 
where  in  the  novel  the  most  notable  discussion 
on  the  Jews  takes  place.  The  club,  like  the 
one  mentioned  in  the  novel,  was  entirely  in- 
formal, was  composed  of  six,  a  bookseller,  a 
journeyman  watchmaker,  one  who  lived  on  a 
moderate  income,  a  bootmaker,  a  poet,  and  a 
general  thinker.  The  original  of  Mordecai  is 
undoubtedly  one  whom  Lewes  mentions  as  a 
German  Jew  by  the  name  of  Kohn,  and  whom 
he  describes  as  follows,  in  the  general  lines  of 
which  description  those  who  are  at  all  familiar 
with  the  portrayal  of  Mordecai  will  recognize 
the  resemblance  : 

"  We  all  admired  him  as  a  man  of  astonishing 
subtlety  and  logical  force  no  less  than  of  sweet 
personal  worth.  He  remains  in  my  memory  as 
a  type  of  philosophic  dignity,  a  calm,  medi- 
tative, amiable  man,  by  trade  a  journeyman 
watchmaker,  very  poor,  with  weak  eyes  and 
chest,  grave  and  gentle  in  demeanor,  incorrupti- 
ble even  by  the  seductions  of  vanity.  I  habitu- 
ally think  of  him  in  connection  with  Spinoza, 
almost  as  much  on  account  of  his  personal  worth, 
as  because  to  him  I  owe  my  first  acquaintance 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      145 

with  the  Hebrew  thinker.  My  admiration  of 
him  was  of  that  enthusiastic  temper  which,  in 
youth,  we  feel  for  our  intellectual  leaders.  I 
loved  his  weak  eyes  and  low  voice.  I  venerated 
his  intellect.  He  was  the  only  man  I  did  not 
contradict  in  the  impatience  of  argument.  An 
immense  pity  and  fervid  indignation  filled  me  as 
I  came  away  from  his  attic  in  one  of  the  Hoi- 
born  courts,  where  I  had  seen  him  in  the  pinch- 
ing poverty  of  his  home.  Indignantly  I  railed 
against  society,  which  could  allow  so  great  an 
intellect  to  withdraw  itself  from  nobler  works 
and  waste  its  precious  hours  in  mending  watches. 
But  he  was  wise  in  his  resignation,  thought  I 
in  my  young  indignation.  Life  was  hard  to  him 
as  to  all  of  us,  but  he  was  content  to  earn  a 
miserable  pittance  by  handicraft  and  kept  his 
soul  serene.  I  learned  to  understand  him  better 
when  I  learned  the  story  of  Spinoza's  life. 

"  Kohn,  as  may  be  supposed,  early  established 
his  supremacy  in  our  club.  A  magisterial  intel- 
lect always  makes  itself  felt.  Even  those  who 
differed  from  him  most  widely  paid  involuntary 
homage  to  his  power." 

Mordecai  is  such  a  master  mind,  who  follows 
his  humble  trade,  getting  his  crust  by  a  handi- 
craft, like  Spinoza,  and  "like  the  great. transmit- 
ters (of  Israel),  who  labored  with  their  hands  for 
scant  bread,  but  preserved  and  enlarged  the 
heritage  of  memory,  and  saved  the  soul  of  Israel 
alive,  as  a  seed  among  the  tombs."  He  is  pre- 


146  THE    JEW   IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

sented  as  a  prophet  of  the  exile,  a  latter-day 
Ezekiel,  a  new  Hebrew  poet,  and  appears  as  an 
illuminated  type  of  bodily  emaciation  and  spir- 
itual eagerness.  Weak  and  consumptive,  but 
with  a  great  soul,  this  Mordecai  has  been  looking 
for  years  for  one  who,  young,  beautiful,  and 
strong,  shall  carry  out  his  ideas  when  he  is  no 
more,  whose  soul  shall  be  joined  to  his  soul, 
whose  pulse  shall  beat  with  his  pulse.  So  long 
had  he  brooded  upon  this  that  it  had  transformed 
itself  into  an  actual  fact,  and  he  reasoned  him- 
self into  it  so  that  his  "  yearning  for  transmission 
had  become  a  hope,  a  confident  belief,  which 
took  on  the  intensity  of  expectant  faith  in  a 
prophecy."  He  lives  in  another  world.  To  the 
people  with  whom  he  dwells,  he  appears  insane. 
They  looked  upon  him  as  a  "  compound — work- 
man, dominie,  vessel  of  charity,  inspired  idiot, 
and  (if  the  truth  must  be  told)  dangerous  here- 
tic." He  is,  indeed,  drawn  with  all  the  attributes 
of  psychological  mystery.  He  is  purely  vision- 
ary, feeds  himself  on  visions,  for  "  visions  are  the 
creators  and  feeders  of  the  world."  He  firmly 
believes  in  premonition ;  he  is  sure  his  friend 
will  come.  He  seizes  upon  Deronda  as  the  one 
who  shall  transmit  his  ideas ;  not  even  when  he 
learns  that  Deronda  is  not  a  Jew,  is  his  faith 
shaken ;  he  knows,  he  feels,  that  he  must  be  so ; 
he  imagines  that  Deronda  is  ignorant  of  his 
origin,  and  when  he  learns  that  this  is  true,  he 
never  for  a  moment  doubts  the  end  when  all 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."     147 

shall  be  learned.  Deronda  shall  be  his  new  life, 
his  new  soul,  when  all  this  breath  is  breathed 
out.  Already,  in  their  first  lengthy  interview, 
he  begins  to  influence  Deronda ;  it  is  a  case  of  a 
strong  mind  overpowering  a  weaker  one.  His 
enthusiasm  is  fervid,  and  the  new  friend  can  not 
withstand  him.  Deronda  is  to  be  to  him  not 
only  a  hand,  but  a  soul,  believing  his  belief, 
moved  by  his  reason,  hoping  his  hope,  seeing  the 
visions  he  points  to,  beholding  a  glory  where  he 
beholds  it.  Is  this  enthusiast  a  prophet  or  a 
dreamer,  a  genius  or  a  madman  ?  Deronda  asks. 

"  Great  wit  to  madness  is  allied, 
And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide." 

This  consumptive,  who  turned  visions  into 
overmastering  impressions,  and  read  outward 
facts  as  fulfillment — whose  enthusiasm  was  so 
burning,  whose  faith  so  powerful — was  he  one 
of  those  monomaniacs  who  have  found  the  phil- 
osopher's stone,  or  invented  perpetual  motion,  or 
did  there  flame  within  him  the  light  of  genius, 
and  was  he  unappreciated  and  misunderstood? 
So  mused  Deronda,  and  his  sympathy  on  the 
one  hand  and  faith  in  Mordecai  on  the  other 
caused  him  to  decide  the  scale  in  favor  of  Mor- 
decai's  greatness.  What,  then,  was  the  idea  of 
this  pale  enthusiast,  what  his  mission?  Surely, 
one  unreal  and  impossible  enough.  It  awoke  in 
him  in  early  years.  The  ideas  came  to  him  be- 
cause he  was  a  Jew.  They  were  a  trust  to 


148  THE    JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

fulfill,  an  inspiration,  because  he  was  a  Jew,  and 
felt  the  heart  of  his  race  beating  within  him. 
And  he  had  dreamed  upon  them  so  long  that 
they  stood  before  him  as  a  reality.  The  vague 
outlines  had  been  filled  up,  and  the  whole  struc- 
ture was  complete  in  his  mind.  He  lived  in  the 
past,  was  a  student  and  disciple  of  Jehudah 
Halevi,  whose  poerns  he  made  a  part  of  himself, 
and  none  of  the  great  poet's  thoughts  did  he  so 
much  and  so  thoroughly  imbibe  as  that  of  the 
return  to  Palestine — that  Israel  is  the  heart  of 
the  nations,  and  must  once  again  be  restored  to 
Palestine,  to  be  the  connection  between  the  East 
and  the  West,  to  be  to  the  East  what  Belgium  is 
to  the  West.  These  same  ideas  George  Eliot 
repeated,  in  an  essay  published  some  years  later, 
entitled  :  "  The  Modern  Hep,  Hep,  Hep ! " 

A  firm  believer  in  the  instinct  of  race  and  na- 
tionality, she  gave  full  expression  to  her  thought 
through  Mordecai,  but  she  did  not  thereby  at  all 
express  the  ideal  of  the  Jews.  The  most  inter- 
esting part  of  the  book,  as  far  as  the  Judaism  is 
concerned,  is  the  forty-second  chapter,  the  dis- 
cussion at  the  club  of  the  Hand  and  Banner,  the 
philosophical  debating  society  mentioned  above. 
Here  Mordecai — "  in  English,  that  Isaiah  might 
have  spoken,"  had  he  used  that  tongue — with 
rushing  force  and  overwhelming  enthusiasm 
utters  forth  his  ideas,  for  he  had  before  him  De- 
ronda,  the  disciple  who  was  to  continue  his  work. 
There  were  present  as  members  of  the  club,  to 


VIII.    GEORGE    ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."       149 

oppose  him,  two  other  Jews :  Pash,  who  saw 
that  the  feeling  of  nationality  was  every- where 
dying,  and  Gideon,  whom  the  author  calls  a 
"  rational  Jew."  Mordecai  looks  upon  the  Jew 
as  not  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  people 
among  whom  he  dwells.  He  is  an  alien  in 
spirit,  whatever  he  may  be  in  form.  He  shows 
no  patriotism.  Therefore  he  must  again  have 
his  own  land  and  his  own  government.  This 
is  false  doctrine.  The  orthodox  Jews  still 
retain  the  prayers  for  a  return  to  Palestine 
in  their  ritual,  but  they  are  only  a  form. 
The  Jews  are  patriotic.  The  records  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  Rebellion  in  this  coun- 
try, of  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  of  the  strug- 
gles in  Italy  for  unification,  all  offer  proof 
of  the  thoroughness  with  which  they  have  lived 
themselves  into  the  lives  of  these  nations,  and 
how  truly  they  are  of  and  wTith  them.  Mordecai 
truly  says  that  unless  nationality  is  a  feeling, 
what  effect  can  it  have  as  an  idea.  And  the 
Jews  have  not  the  feeling  of  nationality  as  Jews. 
"A  new  Judea  poised  between  East  and  West " — 
a  covenant  of  reconciliation  is  the  idea  of  an  en- 
thusiast, but  not  of  one  who  has  thoroughly  en- 
tered into  the  practical  side  of  the  question.  It 
is  an  exploded  notion.  Our  times  can  not  be 
compared  to  those  of  Zerubabel  and  Ezra,  nor 
the  Jews  of  now  to  those  of  then.  This  is  the 
favorite  comparison  of  those  who  advocate  the 


150  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

return.  And  many  of  these  schemes  of  a  re- 
possession of  Palestine  and  a  new  Judea  are  set 
forth  by  Christian  writers.  They  conceive  this 
to  be  the  yet  unfulfilled  mission  of  the  Jews,  if 
they  have  any.  Among  the  Jews  the  Zionistic 
movement  has  laid  stress  of  late  upon  this  inter- 
pretation of  Judaism's  mission  ;  but  after  all,  the 
true  mission  of  Judaism  is  not  the  re-establish- 
ment of  a  tiny  state,  but  the  realization  of  the 
prophetic  ideals,  the  unity  of  God,  universal 
peace  and  justice.  Mordecai,  however,  planned 
it  all  out  beautifully.  The  experience  gained 
during  eighteen  centuries  of  despotism,  the 
wealth  accumulated,  the  knowledge  and  learn- 
ing acquired,  are  all  providential  to  conduce  to 
the  welfare  of  the  new  Jewish  state.  He  is 
so  full  of  this  thought  that,  although  he 
recognizes  some  of  the  difficulties,  these  can 
be  swept  away  if  the  people  be  but  willing. 
But  they  are  not  willing,  at  least  not  the 
Jews  of  the  free  countries.  They  have  been  ad- 
mitted into  the  citizenship  of  states,  and  have 
assimilated  to  themselves  the  customs  of  their 
surroundings.  Whatever  notions  of  this  kind 
may  have  existed  in  the  past,  they  cannot  be 
quoted  in  defense  of  the  argument.  Wherever 
light  and  liberty  were  granted  the  Jews  the 
thought  of  a  return  to  Palestine,  although  con- 
tained in  the  ritual,  never  received  practical 
voice;  it  was  only  in  the  exclusion  and  oppres- 
sion of  the  Ghetto,  when  night  reigned  and  the 


VIII.    GEORGE   ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."       151 

pall  of  thick  darkness  had  settled  upon  them, 
that  they  sighed  for  the  redemption,  and  hoped 
for  a  return  to  their  land.  In  such  times  false 
Messiahs  found  among  them  followers  sufficient, 
and  the  deluded  people  clung  with  a  fervency 
worthy  of  a  hetter  cause  to  the  demagogues  who 
dazzled  and  deceived  them.  Such  made  capital 
out  of  this  helief  of  the  people.  Eagerly  they 
grasped  at  any  hope  which  promised  to  release 
them  from  the  bondage  of  body  and  soul  in 
which  they  were  confined.  But  every  cause  has 
its  enthusiasts.  False  systems,  as  well  as  true, 
have  had  their  martyrs.  Idealists  there  are  who 
can  set  as  their  ideal  any  object  on  which  they 
have  long  enough  brooded,  perfectly  pure  and 
sincere  in  their  every  expression  and  in  their 
every  hope.  Of  this  class  of  idealists  is  Mordecai, 
He  is  truly  grand  in  his  fervor.  Even  such  as 
agree  not  with  his  thoughts  will  acknowledge 
that  the  novelist  has  given  a  magnificent  por- 
trayal, that  shall  stand,  perhaps,  as  her  greatest 
creation.  In  a  hundred  and  one  ways  he  gives 
expression  to  this  same  thought.  In  none  clearer 
than  in  this : 

"  I  say  the  effect  of  our  separateness  will  not 
be  completed  and  have  its  highest  character, 
unless  our  race  takes  on  again  the  character  of  a 
nationality." 

The  past  has  become  his  parent,  the  future 
stretches  out  toward  him  the  appealing  arms  of 
children,  he  says.  What  of  the  present  ?  He  seep 


152  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

in  it  a  blindness  that  prevents  the  Jews  from  per 
ceiving  their  true  mission.  To  any  but  a  vision- 
ary, the  present  would  have  taught  another  les- 
son, viz.,  that  the  idea  of  a  peculiar  nation- 
ality has  disappeared  very  largely;  that  one  aim 
and  purpose  of  the  Jew  to-day  is  to  preach  and 
impress  the  lesson  that  he  is  peculiar  only  in  his 
religion,  not  in  his  nationality;  to  prove  by 
words,  acts,  and  deeds,  that  Judaism  is  not  a 
particularism,  but  a  universalism ;  that  it  at- 
taches not  to  special  time  or  place,  but  is  for  all 
times  and  all  places.  If,  then,  Mordecai's  con- 
ception and  presentation  is  not  in  accord  with 
that  of  many  Jews  of  to-day,  what  is  the  concep- 
tion that  shall  express  their  standpoint?  What 
is  Judaism,  as  they  would  have  it  explained  by 
an  advocate  of  their  idea  ?  "  The  most  learned 
and  liberal  men  among  us  who  are  attached  to 
our  religion  are  for  cleansing  our  liturgy  of  all 
such  notions  as  a  literal  fulfillment  of  the  proph- 
ecies about  restoration,  and  so  on.  Prune  it  of 
a  few  useless  rites  and  literal  interpretations  of 
that  sort,  and  our  religion  is  the  simplest  of  all 
religions,  and  forms  no  barrier  to  a  union  be- 
tween us  and  the  rest  of  the  world."  So  says 
Gideon,  in  answer  to  Mordecai.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  but  that  a  certain  amount  of  senti- 
mentalism  attaches  to  such  views  as  Mordecai 
advances;  they  found  on  a  noble  past;  they  at- 
tract dreamers  and  visionaries ;  they  can  be  set 
forth  in  beautiful,  ardent  words ;  they  can  even 


153 

interest  poetic  souls,  who  pour  forth  their  plaiut 
in  glowing  song;  but  to  such  as  live  in.  the 
present,  they  sound  like  the  utterances  of  some 
medieval  bard,  who  glorified  an  ideal,  unreal  and 
unattainable,  in  poetic  strains.  The  conditions 
of  life  are  such  that  religion  must  be  somewhat 
more  than  a  sentimentalism  and  a  romanticism, 
that  is  ensconced  in  ancient  structures,  with  all 
the  surroundings  of  past  days.  Religion  also,  in 
its  outward  expression,  is  governed  by  the  spirit 
of  progress,  and,  had  George  Eliot  introduced,  as 
her  central  Jewish  figure,  a  thinker  imbued  and 
impressed  with  this  modern  spirit,  although  he 
might  not  have  been  as  interesting  as  this  resur- 
rected prophet  of  the  exile,  and  might  not  have 
been  moved  by  all  the  sentiment  that  Mordecai 
is  made  to  represent,  still  would  he  have  been 
more  real,  more  flesh  and  blood,  less  visionary, 
more  representative  of  modern  Jewish  thought, 
less  theoretical,  more  practical — one  who,  as  well 
as  Mordecai,  might  have,  in  a  manner  more 
suited  to  the  present,  stood  as  a  proof  "  of  the 
hitherto  neglected  reality  that  Judaism  is  some- 
thing still  throbbing  in  human  lives" — that  it 
has  the  capacity  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  the 
religious  conscience.  How  would  such  a  one 
have  spoken  ? 

No  less  earnestly,  no  less  fervently,  he  would 
have  discoursed  somewhat  in  this  wise :  From 
the  time  that  the  Roman  legions  conquered 
Jerusalem,  and  the  brand  hurled  by  the  Roman 


154  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 

soldier  fell  upon  the  Temple  and  set  the  sacred 
edifice  on  fire,  Jewish  nationality  has  ceased. 
Then  it  was  that  one  of  the  most  renowned  of 
teachers  said :  "  One  altar  of  God  in  Israel  is 
not  destroyed,  one  mode  of  atonement  still  ex- 
ists, and  that  is  good  works ;  go  forth  and  do 
them."  And  again  :  "  'No  place  is  eo  ipso  holy ; 
the  men  in  it  make  it  holy."  Israel's  training 
time  was  at  an  end.  The  small  confines  of  Pal- 
estine were  suited  to  them  as  a  home  until  the 
great  teachings  of  the  religion  had  hecome  thor- 
oughly impressed  upon  the  people  and  a  portion 
of  their  very  life.  But  now  their  larger  mission 
was  to  begin  ;  out  among  the  nations,  to  stand 
firm  and  steadfast  as  the  upholders  of  mono- 
theism. A  wonderful  sentence  of  one  of  the 
ancient  writings  says  :  "  On  the  day  the  temple 
was  destroyed,  the  Messiah  was  born."  On  the 
day  that  Israel  was  scattered  forth  among  the 
nations,  its  Messianic  mission  began. 

One  of  its  shoots  would  soon  begin  to  spread 
some  of  its  ideas  among  the  nations  of  Europe ; 
Christianity,  the  daughter  of  Judaism,  was  start- 
ing forth  on  its  wondrous  career.  Six  centuries 
later  another  shoot  of  Judaism  should  spread 
its  ideas  among  the  people  of  Asia  and  Africa. 
But  neither  of  these  was  pure,  both  had  bor- 
rowed heathen  elements :  Christianity,  the  tangi- 
ble conception  of  a  man-god ;  Mohammedanism, 
the  pagan  thought  of  fate,  specially  suited  to  the 
population  among  which  it  spread.  Judaism  in 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      155 

its  purity,  the  exponent  of  monotheism,  still  had 
its  great  mission,  and  forth  went  the  Jews  among 
the  nations  to  live  for  their  religion ;  to  suffer,  to 
die  in  the  body,  but  never  in  the  spirit.  Through 
life  the  divine  unity  was  the  truth  that  upheld 
the  Jew,  before  death  it  was  the  last  word  he 
uttered.  Surely,  if  ever  aught  was  providential, 
the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  among  the  nations 
was.  Had  they  all  dwelt  in  one  land  what  could 
have  prevented  the  strong  and  powerful  foes 
from  exterminating  them  ?  As  it  was,  were  they 
persecuted  in  Spain,  they  found  peace  in  Italy ; 
were  they  massacred  in  Germany,  they  sought 
refuge  in  Poland ;  were  they  oppressed  in  France, 
they  betook  themselves  to  the  land  beyond  the 
Rhine,  where,  perhaps,  there  was  safety.  The 
Jews  were  no  longer  a  nation,  they  were  a  re- 
ligious community,  whose  members  were  scat- 
tered here,  there,  every-where  over  the  civilized 
world.  Their  enemies  attempted  to  crush  them, 
but  they  were  indestructible.  Their  mission 
was  but  beginning ;  in  Palestine  they  had  been 
prepared  for  this  large  life,  now  they  must  live 
on,  work  on,  the  leaders  in  the  grand  march  of 
humanity,  toward  the  mount  of  the  Eternal,  the 
banner-bearers  of  the  glorious  truth  of  mono- 
theism ;  and  only  wThen  this  truth  shall  be  uni- 
versally acknowledged,  only  when  the  mists  of 
superstition  and  error  that  becloud  the  minds  of 
men  shall  have  cleared,  and  as  the  bright  sun  of 
truth,  the  acknowledgment  of  the  Divine  Unity 


156 


THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 


shall  illumine  the  world,  shall  the  mission  of  the 
Jews  be  fulfilled,  and  not  till  then.  Therefore, 
exist  they  thus  among  all  nations,  not  separated 
and  yet  separated ;  one  with  all  among  whom 
they  dwell  in  every  national  custom,  and  act,  in 
every  patriotic  feeling  and  sentiment ;  separate 
in  their  religion,  to  be  distinguished  by  that 
only  and  nothing  more. 

To  speak  of  a  Jewish  consciousness  as  a  long- 
ing for  a  national  idea  and  a  consummation  of  na- 
tional hope,  is  to  give  but  one  side  of  the  matter ; 
for  many  the  Jewish  consciousness  is  religious 
only.  Were  it  not  so,  how  could  be  explained 
the  long  and  weary  struggle  for  national  eman- 
cipation in  every  land  ?  How  could  be  ac- 
counted for  the  eagerness  with  which  every 
sign  of  the  disappearance  of  discriminating  ex- 
clusiveness  was  and  is  welcomed  ?  A  religious 
consciousness  is  theirs,  which  hails  with  joy  every 
evidence  of  increasing  good  will  among  men,  the 
removal  of  the  barriers  that  hatred,  superstition 
and  oppression  have  erected,  the  gradual  meeting 
of  all  in  that  ever  enlarging  space,  the  vantage- 
ground  of  humanity.  Not  the  return  to  Pales- 
tine, not  the  "  planting  of  the  national  ensign  " 
(to  repeat  Mordecai's  words),  expresses  Israel's 
Messianic  hope,  "  but  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  truth,  justice  and  peace  among  all 
men,"  the  realization  of  the  prophet's  word, 
the  approach  of  the  time  when  God  shall  be  one 
and  his  name  one. 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      157 

Gradually,  gradually,  the  exclusiveness  of  the 
Jew  toward  others  and  of  others  toward  him  is 
vanishing  with  other  traditions,  and  so  will  it 
continue  until  in  all  and  among  all  the  thought 
of  man's  likeness  unto  man  shall  cause  to  disap- 
pear all  differences,  when  man-made  distinctions 
shall  be  lost  in  God-made  resemblances. 

Words  such  as  these  are  representative  of 
Jewish  thought  rather  than  Mordecai's  strains 
telling  of  a  restored  national  life.  Dreams  and 
visions  they  are,  the  dreams  of  an  enthusiast 
who  has  lived  only  in  the  past ;  the  visions  of  an 
excited  brain  that  has  fed  upon  the  volumes  of 
ancient  lore.  As  dreams  and  as  visions  they 
appear  to  us,  nothing  more.  Mordecai  has  been 
called,  by  an  admiring  critic,  Isaiah  redivivus, 
Isaiah  living  again.  Yes,  but  Isaiah  when  he 
promised  and  prophesied  the  return,  and  extolled 
the  glory  of  Zion,  spoke  but  of  his  own  days, 
when  a  people  in  sorrow  required  comfort; 
Isaiah  living  now  would  utter  entirely  different 
sentences.  There  is  no  people  in  sorrow,  none 
longing  for  a  return ;  he  would  have  been  heard 
in  but  that  one  glorious  Isaianic  strain,  whose 
refrain  is  one  God  and  one  humanity. 

The  character  of  Mordecai  as  drawn,  aside 
from  his  all-absorbing  visions  and  theories,  is  in 
truth  most  beautiful.  Resigned  to  his  lot,  grate- 
ful to  the  people  so  much  his  inferiors,  with 
whom  he  lives ;  bound  to  them  with  an  affection 
that,  amid  all  their  sordidness  and  materiality, 


158  THE   JEW    IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

enabled  him  to  be  conscious  of  the  hearts  beat- 
ing with  kindness ;  his  interest  in  the  boy  Jacob, 
toward  whom  "his  habitual  tenderness  easily 
turned  into  the  teacher's  fatherhood,"  he  em- 
bodies in  his  life  what  he  says  is  the  spirit  of 
Judaism,  "  The  spirit  of  our  religious  life  is  not 
hatred  of  aught  but  wrong."  All  of  this,  to- 
gether with  the  quiet  ecstacy  with  which  he  re- 
ceives the  information  of  the  rescue  of  his  sister ; 
the  moral  uprightness,  in  whose  presence  even 
the  ready  excuses  and  the  light-hearted  wicked- 
ness of  his  father  are  dumb,  causes  us  to  feel 
that  in  this  picture  the  great  writer  reached  the 
culmination  of  her  powers.  It  is  her  finest  piece 
of  work.  She  has  drawn  a  character  so  ideally 
noble,  of  such  grand  lines,  that  he  seems  a  hero, 
jne  of  those  loftiest  ones  of  earth,  whose  thought, 
whose  life,  are  all  of  one  piece — certainly  the 
grandest  and  noblest  Jewish  character  that  has 
been  given  to  the  world  by  any  English  novel- 
ist. To  most  readers  he  has  appeared  unreal, 
stilted,  moving  too  much  on  the  heights,  too 
far  removed  from  the  common  walks  of  life.  He 
speaks  always  in  visions,  in  ideals,  and  hence  is 
too  peculiar  to  be  aught  but  individual. 

That  we  differ  from  the  opinions  expressed 
does  not  prevent  us  from  granting  the  meed  of 
p raise  that  in  this  great  novel  of  George  Eliot's 
the  Jew  is  treated  as  he  should  be.  The  Jew  is 
presented  as  a  man;  the  Jewess  as  a  woman. 
Neither  the  goodness  of  Mirah  nor  the  wicked- 


VIII.    GEORGE  ELIOT'S  "  DANIEL  DERONDA."      159 

ness  of  her  father  are  described  as  Jewish  ;  the 
former  arose  from  the  hallowed  memory  of  a 
mother's  influence,  the  latter  from  a  weak  na- 
ture that  succumbed  to  evil  associations  and  fas- 
cinations. The  perfection  of  Mordecai's  charac- 
ter is  due  to  the  working  of  a  noble  soul  with 
intuitions  of  the  loftiest.  Deronda,  too,  is  such 
as  he  is,  not  as  a  Jew,  but  as  an  Englishman. 
Those  chapters  which  may  be  designated  as 
Jewish,  are  such  only  from  the  fact  that  they 
are  occupied  with  purely  Jewish  questions;  and 
the  light  wherein  they  are  treated,  but  not  that 
they  are  treated,  can  be  the  subject  of  criticism. 
We  are  not  moved  to  indignation  by  having  a 
wicked  character  drawn,  nor  do  we  feel  un- 
comfortable by  having  an  impossibly  good  fig- 
ure presented  as  such  because  either  is  Jewish. 
In  neither  direction  has  the  author  sinned.  Her 
noble  men  and  women  are  such  as  developments 
of  fine  and  beautiful  characteristics.  They  are 
such  naturally,  as  are  also  her  wicked  ones. 
Mordecai,  although  we  may  regard  his  visions 
and  theories  impracticable  and  impossible  of  ful- 
fillment, is  yet  possibly  Jewish  in  thought.  With 
a  certain  self-training  and  a  nourishment  on 
medieval  and  ancient  Jewish  sentiments  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  else,  a  mind  of  this  kind  can  be 
evolved ;  but  let  it  be  stated  again  that  Mor- 
decai is  not  a  representative  of  modern  Jewish 
thought.  Yet  is  the  whole  picture  pathetic — 
the  fervent  soul  in  the  weak  body;  the  ideal  in 


160  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

so  fragile  a  vessel.  Such  there  are,  living  the 
noble  lives  they  do,  whose  ideals,  whether  true 
or  false,  have  a  hallowing  influence  on  them- 
selves and  on  those  whom  they  may  immedi- 
ately affect,  as  Mordecai  did  Deronda.  In 
thinking  upon  the  whole  presentation  of  Mor- 
decai, we  unconsciously  repeat  the  lines  the 
novelist  herself  quotes: 

"  My  spirit  is  too  weak ;  mortality 
Weighs  heavy  on  me  like  unwilling  sleep, 
And  each  imagined  pinnacle  and  steep 
Of  godlike  hardship,  tells  me  I  must  die- 
Like  a  sick  eagle  looking  at  the  sky." 


161 


IX.    ZANGWILL'S  "CHILDREN  OF  THE 
GHETTO/'  AND  OTHERS. 

In  the  introductory  chapter  of  this  volume  the 
statement  was  made  that  the  peculiar  traits  and 
customs  with  the  accompanying  characteristic 
view-points  of  life,  man  and  the  world  which 
had  developed  in  Jewry  during  the  Christian 
centuries  of  oppression  and  exclusion  offer  legiti- 
mate material  for  treatment  by  the  fictionist. 
Reference  was  made  to  a  number  of  German 
writers,  such  as  Kompert,  Bernstein,  Franzos 
and  Kohn  who  had  pictured  this  life  of  the 
Ghetto  in  tale  and  story.  During  the  years 
that  have  elapsed  since  this  book  was  issued,  a 
similar  school  of  authors  has  appeared  in  Eng- 
land and  America.  An  estimate  of  the  work 
of  some  of  these  writers  forms  the  subject  of  this 
chapter. 

Easily  at  the  head  of  this  school  stands  Israel 
Zangwill,  whose  classic  "  The  Children  of  the 
Ghetto,"  led  the  way  in  this  line  of  endeavor. 
It  is  about  ten  years  since  this  remarkable  book 
that  opened  an  unknown  world  to  the  English 
reading  public  brought  into  prominent  -notice  a 
new  writer  who  portrayed  the  lights  and  shades 
of  Jewish  life  with  such  skill  as  betrayed  a 
master  equipped  with  the  necessary  gifts,  viz., 


162  THE  JEW    IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

keen  insight  into  the  life  wherewith  he  was  con- 
cerned, adequate  information  concerning  all  the 
complex  phases  of  Jewish  character,  sufficient 
knowledge  of  historical  facts  and  present  condi- 
tions, brilliant  literary  ability,  epigrammatic 
power,  and  critical  acumen  combined  with  sym- 
pathetic feeling.  Before  attempting  a  more  or 
less  exhaustive  presentation  and  estimate  of 
ZangwilPs  work,  it  may  be  well  to  institute  a 
brief  comparison  between  him  and  the  writer 
who  up  to  the  time  of  his  appearance  in  the 
literary  field  was  by  common  consent  considered 
the  foremost  of  the  Ghetto  novelists.  I  refer  to 
Leopold  Kompert.  I  am  led  to  do  this  because 
such  a  comparison  throws  a  strong  light  on  dif- 
ferent methods  of  treating  similar  themes. 
Kompert's  tales,  beautiful  and  touching  as  they 
are,  and  true  to  the  life  as  far  as  they  go,  yet 
show  only  one  side  of  the  picture.  Kompert 
lived  in  the  days  when  the  emancipation  of  the 
Jews  from  the  restrictive  legislation  of  centuries 
was  a  living  issue  in  European  political  life  ;  be- 
ing eager  for  the  realization  of  this  program,  he 
naturally  chose  for  his  tales  only  such  themes  as 
brought  out  the  finer  traits  of  Jewish  life,  its  de- 
votion, its  domesticity,  its  religiousness,  its 
ideals.  The  reader  of  these  tales  cannot  but  be 
impressed  by  the  fact  that  there  are  so  few  dark 
spots  in  the  life  portrayed.  Kompert  was  like 
the  lover  who  sees  only  the  beauties  in  his  be- 
loved. There  was  but  little  of  the  critic  in  his 


IX.    "CHILDREN    OF   THE    GHETTO."  163 

mental  constitution ;  he  does  not  view  his  sub- 
ject from  every  point;  limpid,  pure,  pathetic, 
charming,  picturesque  though  these  etchings  of 
a  vanished  existence  be,  and  readily  though  we 
can  understand  and  sympathize  with  the  object 
of  their  author,  still  can  we  not  but  feel  that  he 
permitted  himself  to  be  circumscribed  by  limita- 
tions, through  which  if  he  had  broken,  he  would 
have  painted  with  a  larger  brush  and  given  us  a 
more  comprehensive  picture.  It  is  here  that 
Zangwill  displays  the  broader  outlook ;  no  less 
appreciative  of  the  beauty,  he  recognizes  also 
the  ugliness ;  no  less  conscious  of  the  lights,  he 
notices  likewise  the  shadows  ;  he  sees  both  sides 
where  Kompert  saw  only  the  one  side,  and  for 
that  reason  the  portrayals  of  the  English  writer 
of  Ghetto  stories  are  more  likely  to  appeal  as  an 
unbiased  representation  than  are  the  tales  of 
his  Bohemian  predecessor.  It  is  this  ability  of 
Zangwill  to  see  all  sides  which  is  possibly  his 
most  striking  trait  as  shall  be  shown  at  greater 
length  further  on.  The  methods  of  these  two 
masters  in  the  portrayal  of  Jewish  life  repre- 
sent two  types  in  the  treatment  of  their  com- 
mon subject;  Kompert,  a  path-finder  in  this 
peculiar  branch  of  fiction,  undoubtedly  had  his 
reason  for  the  course  he  pursued,  as  has  been  in- 
dicated, or  it  may  have  been  a  matter  of  tempera- 
ment as  that  other  prominent  Ghetto  novelist, 
Karl  Emil  Franzos,  claims,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  fact  that  Zangwill's  sweep  is  wider 


164  THE  JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

and  that  by  viewing  this  life  from  every  side  he 
has  made  a  distinct  step  in  advance  of  Kompert, 
the  greatest  continental  word  painter  of  the  life 
of  the  Ghetto. 

Although  Zangwill  has  written  many  short 
stories  based  upon  incidents  of  the  life  in  the 
Ghetto,  yet  will  his  fame  as  a  Ghetto  novelist 
rest  ultimately  upon  the  book  which  is  the  sub- 
ject of  our  present  consideration,  "  The  Children 
of  the  Ghetto."  ~No  phase  of  life  as  it  developed 
in  the  Jewish  quarter  and  as  it  appears  among 
the  descendants  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ghetto, 
whose  domicile  is  removed  far  from  the  squalid 
homes  of  their  ancestors  escapes  him;  all  the 
features  of  Jewish  life,  social,  communal  and  re- 
ligious are  set  forth  by  him  in  masterly  touches. 

The  book  consists  of  two  parts,  the  first  being 
Ghetto  sketches  proper,  that  is,  portrayals  of 
scenes  and  incidents  in  the  Ghetto  itself,  the 
second  portion  having  for  its  theme  the  life  of 
modern  Jews  and  the  institutions  of  Judaism  in 
the  England  of  the  present  day.  The  scene  of  the 
greater  portion  of  the  book  is  the  so-called  Lon- 
don Ghetto;  strictly  speaking,  there  never  was 
a  Ghetto  in  London  in  the  same  sense  as  in  the 
countries  of  continental  Europe;  the  Ghetto 
was  the  enforced  dwelling-place  of  the  Jews; 
mediaeval  legislation  of  the  church  and  the  state 
prescribed  certain  portions  of  cities  and  towns 
within  whose  precincts  the  Jews  might  dwell ; 
they  were  forbidden  to  live  anywhere  else;  this 


IX.   "  CHILDREN   OF   THE   GHETTO."  165 

was  the  official  Ghetto.  In  this  literal  acceptation 
of  the  term,  the  English  metropolis  never  had  a 
Ghetto;  .the  Jews  were  never  confined  by  law  to 
any  one  specified  quarter;  but  for  all  that  a 
Ghetto  in  fact  existed  there ;  it  was  a  voluntary 
Ghetto,  it  is  true,  but  the  same  life,  the  same 
traits,  habits,  customs,  superstitions,  hopes, 
ideals,  appeared  there  as  in  the  actual  official 
ghettos  of  continental  cities.  In  truth,  the  in- 
habitants of  the  London  Ghetto  came  almost 
altogether  from  these  continental  Jewish  quar- 
ters and  merely  transplanted  to  their  new  home 
the  life  of  their  former  habitation.  The  exclu- 
sion to  which  the  Jews  had  been  subjected  for 
centuries  threw  them  upon  their  own  resources, 
and  there  grew  up  that  peculiar  life  of  the  Ghetto 
which  only  he  who  has  sympathetic  insight  into 
and  full  acquaintanceship  with  the  facts  can  un- 
derstand. The  onlooker  saw  merely  the  squalor, 
the  pettiness,  the  ugliness,  the  repellent  features 
of  that  existence;  he  could  not  look  beneath  the 
surface,  where  he  would  have  found  the  fine  vir- 
tues of  domesticity,  the  deep  respect  for  learn- 
ing, the  strong  religious  faith — qualities  that  in- 
vest with  brilliancy  even  the  most  squalid  life  as 
far  as  externalities  go.  It  is  here  that  Zangwill 
is  master.  He  knows  his  subject  in  its  every 
detail.  He  is  no  mere  panegyrist,  as  little  as  he 
is  an  apologist;  he  sees  the  virtues  and  the 
faults;  he  would  not  hide  the  latter  as  little  as 
he  would  minimize  the  former;  it  is  for  this 


166  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH    FICTION. 

reason  that  his  chronicle  so  impresses  the  reader 
as  a  truthful  portrayal;  the  men  and  women 
that  appear  in  his  pages  are  real  men  and 
women,  with  human  failings  and  human  excel- 
lencies, not  figments  of  the  imagination.  The 
Ghetto  was  a  "  world  in  little ;"  "  except  for  the 
infrequency  of  the  more  bestial  types  of  men 
and  women,  Judea  has  always  been  a  cosmos  in 
little,  and  its  pugilists  and  scientists,  its  philoso- 
phers and  fences,  its  gymnasts  and  money- 
leaders, its  scholars  and  stock  brokers,  its 
musicians,  chess  players,  poets,  comic  singers, 
lunatics,  saints,  publicans,  politicians,  warriors, 
poltroons,  mathematicians,  actors,  foreign  corre- 
spondents, have  always  been  in  the  first  rank. 
Nihil  humani  alienum  a  se  Judceus  putat."  This 
expression  of  our  novelist  may  be  taken  as  the 
basis  whereon  he  rears  his  structure  ;  it  is  indeed  a 
microcosm  that  lie  analyses;  the  line  points  he 
emphasizes,  but  the  less  commendable  aspects  he 
does  not  conceal.  For  example,  he  does  not 
scruple  to  speak  of  the  prejudices  within  Jewry, 
the  animosity  of  class  against  class,  Spanish 
Jews  against  German  Jews,  Pollak  against  Lit- 
vok;  he  alludes  to  the  gambling  spirit,  notably 
as  it  showed  itself  in  playing  in  the  "  lotteree," 
and  in  the  love  for  a  game  of  cards ;  the  frequent 
squabbles,  the  "  national  chutzpah,  which  is  va- 
riously translated  enterprise,  audacity,  brazen 
impudence  and  cheek,"  and  other  such  unpleas- 
ant traits  are  indicated  in  this  composite  picture, 


167 

but  these  are  more  than  offset  by  the  sympa- 
thetic portrayal  of  the  domestic  life  in  such 
touching  scenes  as  the  Friday  night  in  Rob 
Shemuel's  home,  the  beautiful  intimacy  between 
Hannah  and  her  father,  the  tear-compelling  in- 
cident of  the  Hyams'  honeymoon,  the  fine  scene 
between  Hambourg,  the  aged  scholar,  and  Stre- 
litzki,  the  struggling,  poverty-stricken,  young 
idealist,  the  many  delicate  touches  showing  the 
self-sacriiicing  love  of  the  Jew  for  his  own,  and 
his  charity  toward  the  needy,  by  the  description 
of  the  Sabbath  as  making  "life  a  conscious,  vol- 
untary sacrifice  to  an  ideal  whose  reward  was  a 
touch  of  consecration  once  a  week,"  and  by  the 
terse  word  of  Reb  Shemuel,  that  sums  up  the 
whole  story  of  the  Jewish  home  life,  "  the  light 
of  a  true  Jewish  home  will  lead  a  man's  foot- 
steps back  to  God ;"  taken  all  in  all,  the  faults  fall 
far  short  of  being  very  serious,  while  the  virtues 
are  glowing;  Zangwill  has  drawn  his  scenes  and 
characters  with  truthful  pen ;  in  this  first  volume 
he  has  steered  skillfully  between  the  Scylla  of 
chauvinism  and  the  Charybdis  of  unjustified 
fault-finding;  therefore,  he  is,  in  a  truer  sense 
than  most  other  writers,  the  portrayerof  the  real 
life  of  the  Ghetto.  What  truer  description  of  the 
Ghetto  has  ever  been  given  than  this  wherewith 
he  concludes  the  chapter  on  the  celebration  of  the 
Sabbath  eve  in  the  homes  of  the  Ghetto  deni- 
zens :  "All  around  their  neighbors  sought  distrac- 
tion in  the  blazing  public-houses  and  their  tipsy 


168  THE  JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

bellowings  resounded  through  the  streets  and 
mingled  with  the  Hebrew  hymns.  Here  and 
there  the  voice  of  a  beaten  woman  rose  in  the 
air.  But  no  Son  of  the  Covenant  was  among 
the  revelers  or  the  wife  beaters ;  they  remained 
a  chosen  race,  a  peculiar  people,  redeemed  at 
least  from  the  grosser  vices,  a  little  human  islet 
won  from  the  waters  of  animalism  by  the  genius 
of  ancient  engineers.  For  while  the  genius  of 
the  Greek  or  the  Roman,  the  Egyptian  or  the 
Phoenician  survives  but  in  word  and  stone  the 
Hebrew  word  alone  was  made  flesh." 

Naturally  it  is  understood  by  the  reader  of  the 
first  portion  of  the  book  that  the  author  treats  of 
an  existence  that  has  in  great  part  disappeared, 
although  the  emigration  of  thousands  from  Rus- 
sia, Roumania  and  Galicia,  caused  by  the  heart- 
less treatment  of  the  Jews  in  these  lands,  has 
filled  with  newcomers  the  old  Ghetto  district  of 
London  that  was  being  depopulated  by  removals 
to  other  sections  of  the  city.  Likewise  have 
similar  voluntary  Ghettos  been  formed  in  our 
American  cities,  notably  New  York,  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and  Boston,  where  the 
life  is  still  much  like  that  portrayed  in  Zangwill's 
pages.  Of  course,  the  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  Jews  who  live  among  their  fellow-citizens  of 
other  faiths  have  left  the  Ghetto  life  behind 
them ;  the  complex  features  of  the  transitional 
stage  in  the  existence  of  Jewry,  such  as  the  ad- 
justment to  the  new  environment,  the  growth 


IX.      "  CHILDREN    OF    THE    GHETTO."  169 

away  from  the  cramped  conditions  of  centuries, 
the  accompanying  changes  in  the  interpretation 
of  Judaism,  the  struggle  between  the  old  and 
the  new,  is  another  story,  but  to  this,  too,  our 
author  applies  the  keen  dissecting  power  of  his 
critical  faculty  and  gives  us  the  results  of  his  ob- 
servations of  the  life  of  those  whom  in  quaint 
phrase  he  styles  the  grandchildren  of  the  Ghetto. 
But  first  let  us  examine  somewhat  more  closely 
the  picture  he  has  painted  of  the  life  in  the 
Ghetto  proper. 

Scores  of  quaint  customs  had  grown  up  among 
the  Jews  in  the  long  course  of  their  life  and 
their  travail  among  the  peoples  of  the  earth; 
some  of  these  customs  were  Biblical  in  origin ; 
many  had  been  borrowed  from  the  different 
Asiatic,  European  and  African  nations  among 
whom  the  Jews  dwelt  in  later  times  and  their 
origin  being  forgotten  had  become  incorporated 
into  the  body  of  Jewish  observance ;  in  the  por- 
trayal of  Ghetto  life  these  customs  naturally 
bulk  largely  on  the  horizon.  The  existence  of 
the  Jew  was  in  large  part  concerned  with  the 
punctilious  observance  of  religious  custom  and 
practice ;  from  morn  till  night  his  religion  laid 
claim  upon  him;  his  religion  was  not  merely 
for  one  day  of  the  week,  but  every  day  had  its 
religious  obligations;  in  time  this  degenerated 
into  formalism ;  many  customs  continued  to  be 
observed  whose  reason  for  existence  had  long 
since  passed  away ;  the  minutiae  of  religious 


170  THE   JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

ceremonialism  often  obscured  the  essentials  of 
religion,  but  they  made  the  religion  a  very  pres- 
ent thing  to  the  observing  Jew,  and  therefore 
in  our  sketches  the  many  customs  and  obser- 
vances are  referred  to  here,  there  and  every- 
where. 

The  superstitions,  too,  whereof  the  Ghetto 
Jew  and  particularly  the  Jewess  has  a  full  share 
are  indicated ;  such  as  the  belief  in  the  saving 
power  of  charms  and  amulets,  in  the  blighting 
effect  of  the  Evil  Eye,  in  the  verification  of  a 
statement  by  sneezing,  in  the  wonder-working 
power  of  the  chasid,  in  the  superstitions  con- 
nected with  death,  these  darker  elements,  too, 
form  an  integral  ingredient  in  that  strange  com- 
pound, Jewish  life,  and  cannot  be  left  out  of  ac- 
count if  a  true  estimate  is  to  be  formed.  Zang- 
will  has  produced  a  real  chiaroscuro;  and  as  in 
every  picture  of  the  kind,  the  shadows  bring  out 
the  bright  spots  in  stronger  relief. 

Possibly  one  of  the  most  striking  features  in 
Jewish  life  was  the  prevalence  of  and  deep  re- 
spect for  learning;  the  Jews  have  always  been  a 
Culturvolk  ;  there  was  never  a  time,  were  it  ever  so 
troubled,  that  provision  of  some  kind  was  not 
made  for  the  education  of  the  young;  the  learned 
man  was  the  pride  of  the  community;  the  his- 
tory of  Judaism  since  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  founding  of  the  academies  of  Palestine  and 
Babylon  shortly  thereafter  is  really  the  history 
of  its  scholars  and  thinkers ;  the  ideal  of  the 


171 

Jewish  community  was  the  learned  scholar, 
versed  in  the  lore  of  the  Bible,  the  Talmud, 
the  philosophers,  the  casuists.  Learning  was 
not  a  trade;  it  was  pursued  and  loved  for  its 
own  sake.  Therefore  it  was  not  unusual  to  find 
the  humblest,  poorest  and  most  unlikely  in- 
dividuals possessed  of  great  learning  and  keen 
dialectical  powers.  Throughout  these  pages 
this  appears.  Moses  Ansell,  the  unsuccessful 
vendor  of  lemons,  the  recipient  of  charity,  the 
sorry  failure  in  the  race  for  fortune  and  the 
good  things  of  material  life,  but  withal  a  scholar 
and  possessed  of  scholarly  aims,  is  not  an  ex- 
aggerated portrayal;  the  Ghetto  had  hundreds 
of  such  peddlars  who  were  able  to  read  the 
Talmud,  small  traders  who  delighted  in  learned 
discussions;  nowhere  else  were  there  such  char- 
acters to  be  found ;  in  the  Ghetto  of  New  York 
a  street  trader  who  was  selling  soda  water  was 
found  by  a  would-be  customer  so  deeply  im- 
mersed in  a  volume  that  he  was  lost  to  the 
world  and  had  to  be  recalled  by  a  vigorous 
exclamation  to  the  things  of  this  mundane 
sphere;  the  volume  was  found  to  be  the  Jewish 
philosophical  classic,  "  The  Guide  of  the  Per- 
plexed," by  Moses  Maimonides;  where  else  but 
in  a  Jewish  Ghetto  would  one  find  a  street 
merchant  studying  philosophy  ?  Nor  would 
such  a  case  be  isolated ;  the  desire  for  learning 
permeated  Jewish  life ;  even  the  most  ignorant 
honored  it ;  the  shrewish  rich  Malka  enter- 


172  THE    JEW   IN    ENGLISH   FICTION. 

tained  at  bottom  a  deep  respect  for  her  poor 
unsuccessful  kinsman  Moses  Ansell.  In  spite 
of  the  misery  and  untowardness  of  their  ex- 
ternal existence  the  Jews  even  in  the  Ghetto 
remained  constant  to  the  ideals  of  education 
and  learning.  The  methods  were  often  wrong, 
but  the  intention  was  right;  the  highest  hope 
of  the  father  for  his  son  was  that  he  should  be- 
come a  rabbi,  a  great  light  of  learning  in  Israel ; 
the  greatest  ambition  of  the  rich  man  was  to 
marry  his  daughter  to  a  scholar.  This  idealistic 
strain  was  the  saving  element  in  the  century- 
long  misery  which  our  author  calls  in  his  proem, 
"  that  long  cruel  night  in  Jewry  which  coin- 
cides with  the  Christian  Era." 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  have  been  gath- 
ered that  Zangwill  is  endowed  with  the  power 
of  gazing  into  the  very  heart  of  things  Jew- 
ish. Either  in  propria  persona  or  by  using  his 
various  characters  as  mouthpieces  he  sets  forth 
the  many  varied  views  that  are  prevalent  in 
Judaism  to-day  as  to  its  aims  and  purposes,  its 
significance  and  hopes.  All  shades  of  opinion 
are  represented  through  the  medium  of  the 
different  characters;  uncompromising  orthodoxy 
with  its  rigid  adherence  to  every  dictum  of  the 
rabbinical  law  as  codified  in  the  Shulchan  Arukh 
and  the  protest  against  this  that  culminated  in 
what  is  known  as  the  Reform  Movement;  the 
belief  in  the  return  to  Palestine  as  the  consum- 
mation of  Judaism's  hopes  and  the  larger  uni- 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OF  THE  GHETTO."         173 

versalistic  outlook  that  interprets  the  messianic 
expectation  of  Judaism  to  be  not  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  Jewish  state  in  Palestine,  but 
the  realization  of  the  prophetic  hopes  of  one 
God  and  one  humanity  and  the  establishment 
of  the  reign  of  justice,  righteousness  and  peace 
on  earth ;  the  scoffing  skepticism  of  the  un- 
believing race  Jew  who  holds  nothing  sacred 
but  his  own  material  welfare  and  the  reverent 
idealism  of  the  young  collegian  to  whom  the 
great  story  of  his  faith's  wondrous  past  and  the 
high  possibility  of  its  future  appeal  with  mighty 
force;  in  a  word,  the  strange  complex  phe- 
nomenon presented  by  Judaism  at  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century  is  painted  with  a  mas- 
ter's brush,  and  of  all  the  colors  requisite  for  the 
making  of  the  truthful  picture  scarcely  one  is 
wanting.  Then,  too,  how  with  keen  satire  he 
exposes  the  shortcomings  of  modern  Jewish 
life  in  England,  whether  now  it  be  in  its  syn- 
agogal  institutions,  its  social  manners  or  its  pro- 
fessional charities.  But  not  only  is  he  mordant 
critic  of  the  faults  of  the  Jews,  but  also  positive 
thinker  on  the  intent  and  philosophy  of  Juda- 
ism. In  many  an  epigrammatic  utterance  he 
sums  up  in  a  few  words  the  Jewish  interpreta- 
tion of  life,  as  when  he  speaks  of  the  "  note  of 
spiritualized  common  sense  which  has  been  the 
keynote  of  Judaism,"  and  again  in  words  of 
similar  effect,  "  Judaism  is  so  human.  .  .  . 
No  abstract  metaphysics,  but  a  lovable  way  of 


174  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

living  the  common  life  sanctified  by  the  centu- 
ries;" here  one  of  his  characters  says:  "The 
theory  of  Judaism  has  always  been  the  spirit- 
ualization  of  the  material,"  and  there  another 
speaks  of  the  Jewish  race  as  having  "antici- 
pated Positivism  in  vitalizing  history  by  making 
it  religion,"  and  how  the  history  of  the  Jews  is 
illumined  as  by  a  flash  in  the  brilliant  epigram 
"The  people  of  Christ  has  been  the  Christ  of 
the  peoples,"  or  by  that  other  utterance  spoken 
by  Strelitzki,  the  idealistic  dreamer  endowed 
with  a  prophetic  soul,  "  to  be  a  nation  without  a 
fatherland,  but  with  a  mother  tongue,  Hebrew — 
there  is  the  spiritual  originality,  the  miracle  of 
history;"  or  again  by  the  passionate  exclama- 
tion of  Raphael,  "our  mere  existence  since  the 
Diaspora  is  a  protest."  Great  gift  indeed  this 
to  be  able  to  subsume  in  such  brilliant  generali- 
zations the  story  of  centuries  of  endeavor  and 
the  true  inwardness  of  the  practical  philosophy 
of  Judaism. 

The  publication  of  this  book  and  in  a  still 
greater  degree  its  dramatization  were  the  occa- 
sions for  heated  discussions  pro  and  con  as  to  the 
propriety  and  wisdom  of  producing  books  and 
plays  of  this  kind  that  bring  out  the  peculiarities 
of  Jewish  life.  It  is  claimed  that  ZangwilPs 
picture  of  Jewish  life  is  unjust  to  the  modern 
Jew,  that  the  non-Jewish  reader  is  likely  to  re- 
ceive a  wrong  impression  of  Judaism  and  Jewry 
from  these  pages.  I  have  always  thought  that 


175 

when  Zangwill  wrote  the  opening  chapter  of  the 
second  volume  of  his  "  Children  of  the  Ghetto," 
entitled  u  The  Christmas  Dinner,"  in  which  the 
guests  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  Goldsmith  discuss 
E.  A.'s  book,  Mordecai  Josephs,  he  forecasted  the 
comments  on  his  own  book  in  a  certain  section  of 
Jewish  society  whose  chief  characteristic  is  a 
snobbish  chauvinism  that  causes  them  to  squirm 
at  the  memories  evoked.  Such  naturally  con- 
demn without  stint  a  work  like  this  which  utters 
many  unpalatable  truths;  and  why?  Because 
they  cannot  penetrate  into  the  heart  of  the  au- 
thor's purpose,  because  they  cannot  understand 
that  the  best  advocate  of  a  good  cause  is  he  who 
by  contrasts  makes  the  finer  elements  of  that 
cause  stand  forth  the  more  clearly,  because  their 
ear  has  not  caught  what  the  author  seems  to  me 
to  have  declared  to  the  world  in  those  pages,  in 
words  whose  purport  might  be  as  follows : 
"  Whatever  is  objectionable  in  this  strange  world 
that  I  have  portrayed  is  the  result  of  the  exclu- 
sion into  which  the  Jew  was  forced  during  cen- 
turies of  intolerance  and  persecution.  But  in 
spite  of  this  exclusion  and  oppression,  see  what 
noble  traits  have  been  developed,  strengthened 
and  preserved,  the  religiosity  of  this  people,  the 
fidelity  of  its  men,  the  chastity  of  its  women; 
see  the  respect  in  which  learning  was  held ;  see 
the  generous  charity  of  the  poor  towards  one 
another,  to  say  nothing  of  that  of  the  rich  ;  see 
the  nobility  of  the  domestic  life ;"  nay,  the  un- 


176  THE   JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

biased  lover  of  truth  cannot  but  feel  grateful  that 
Zangwill  has  preserved  in  these  pages  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  fast  vanishing  life ;  thank  God, 
that  the  enforced  Ghetto  has  disappeared  from 
the  domains  of  the  free  nations  of  the  earth ;  the 
voluntary  Ghettos  in  the  great  cities,  it  is  true, 
still  continue  the  old  life,  but  they,  too,  with  the 
passing  years,  will  go  the  way  of  all  things 
earthly;  the  Ghetto  life  has  affected  the  devel- 
opment of  Jewish  character  for  better  or  for 
worse;  this  development  our  author  has  pre- 
sented with  great  ability  and  precision.  His 
portrayal  will  stand  ever  as  a  real  contribution 
to  the  subject,  for,  even  though  in  the  fictional 
form,  it  is  a  study  drawn  from  the  life  and  has 
all  the  similitude  of  truth. 

The  second  volume,  "The  Grandchildren  of 
the  Ghetto,"  falls  below  the  first.  When  Zang- 
will writes  of  the  Ghetto  life  he  writes  as  a  sym- 
pathetic observer  and  an  unbiased  historical  fic- 
tionist;  when  he  writes  of  modern  Jewish  life 
in  the  so-called  west  end  of  London,  he  is  the 
critic  who  has  an  eye  for  the  faults,  and  can  de- 
tect few,  if  any,  virtues ;  the  Jew  of  the  past 
(for  that  is  what  the  Ghetto  Jew  practically  is) 
he  writes  of  con  amove;  the  Jew  of  the  present 
he  sees  through  a  glass  critically.  Without 
doubt  there  is  much  to  criticise  and  find  fault 
with  in  the  management  of  the  public,  religious 
and  charitable  institutions,  without  doubt  in  ad- 
justing themselves  to  the  changed  conditions 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OF  THE  GHETTO."         177 

subsequent  to  the  removal  from  the  Ghetto  the 
Jews  have  fallen  short  of  satisfying  the  demands 
of  the  highest  life,  without  doubt  the  innuendos 
of  Esther  and  the  passionate  outbursts  of  Strel- 
itzki  on  the  lack  of  the  true  religious  spirit 
among  English  Jews  are  justified  by  many  facts 
in  the  case,  but  yet  the  reader  of  this  second  vol- 
ume cannot  but  feel  that  the  author  has  changed 
his  base  appreciably;  he  is  evidently  out  of  all 
sympathy  with  present  day  Judaism  in  England  ; 
if  it  has  any  good  points  (and  some  it  certainly 
has),  he  will  not  see  them;  we  feel  ourselves 
rather  in  the  company  of  Zangwill,  the  critic, 
than  in  that  of  Zangwill,  the  novelist.  When 
he  returns  with  Esther  to  the  Ghetto,  the  old 
spell  begins  to  work  again  and  the  geniality 
of  treatment  that  constitutes  the  charm  of  the 
first  volume  reappears.  Still  with  it  all,  we 
close  the  book  with  the  feeling  that  dissatisfied 
as  the  author  is  with  the  conditions  in  Jewish 
life  in  London  of  to-day,  yet  he  sees  hope  in  the 
future ;  the  transitional  period  with  its  Henry 
Goldsmiths,  its  Sydney  Grahams,  its  Percy  Sa- 
villes,  its  Leonard  James,  is  a  necessary  incident 
in  the  wondrous  tale  of  Jewish  life ;  but  Juda- 
ism has  always  had  its  saving  remnant,  enthusi- 
asts like  Raphael  Leon,  idealists  like  Strelitzki, 
self-sacrificing  hearts  like  Esther  Ansell,  the  re- 
found  Esther ;  the  critic  of  the  present  turns  into 
the  dreamer  of  the  future  and  in  the  last  chapter 
of  the  book,  at  the  close  of  the  realistic  descrip- 


178  THE  JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

tion  of  the  service  on  the  day  of  atonement  there 
occurs  that  eloquent  burst  which  we  cannot  but 
feel  expresses  the  author's  own  attitude  and  is 
significant  of  his  own  feeling.  I  may  well  set 
down  the  passage  here ;  the  service  of  the  long 
day  had  drawn  to  its  close;  the  declaration  of 
the  unity  of  God  had  been  spoken  "  and  then  in 
the  brief  instant  while  the  congregation  with 
ever  increasing  rhapsody,  blessed  God  till  the 
climax  came  with  the  seven  fold  declaration, 
'  The  Lord  he  is  God,'  the  whole  history  of  her 
strange  unhappy  race  flashed  through  her  mind 
in  a  whirl  of  resistless  emotion.  She  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  thought  of  its  sons  in  every 
corner  of  the  earth  proclaiming  to  the  somber 
twilight  sky  the  belief  for  which  its  generations 
had  lived  and  died — the  Jews  of  Russia  sobbing 
it  forth  in  their  pale  of  enclosure,  the  Jews  of 
Morocco  in  their  mellah,  and  of  South  Africa  in 
their  tents  by  the  diamond  mines;  the  Jews  of 
the  New  World  in  great  free  cities,  in  Canadian 
backwoods,  in  South  American  savannahs;  the 
Australian  Jews  in  the  sheep-farms  and  the 
gold-fields  and  in  the  mushroom  cities;  the 
Jews  of  Asia  in  their  reeking  quarters  begirt  by 
barbarian  populations.  .  .  .  The  grey  dusk 
palpitated  with  floating  shapes  of  prophets  and 
martyrs,  scholars  and  sages  and  poets  full  of 
yearning  love  and  pity,  lifting  hands  of  benedic- 
tion. By  what  great  high-roads  and  queer  by- 
ways of  history  had  they  traveled  hither,  these 


IX.    "  CHILDREN   OF   THE  GHETTO."  179 

wandering  Jews,  sated  with  contempt,  these 
shrewd,  eager  fanatics,  these  sensual  ascetics, 
these  human  paradoxes,  adaptive  to  every  en- 
vironment, energizing  in  every  field  of  activity, 
omnipresent  like  some  great  natural  force,  in  de- 
structible and  almost  inconvertible,  surviving  with 
the  immovable  optimism  that  overlay  all  their 
poetic  sadness — Babylon  and  Carthage,  Greece 
and  Rome ;  involuntarily  financing  the  Crusades, 
overthrowing  the  inquisition,  illusive  of  all  baits, 
unshaken  by  all  persecutions,  at  once  the  greatest 
and  meanest  of  races?  Had  the  Jew  come  so 
far  only  to  break  down  at  last,  sinking  in  mo- 
rasses of  modern  doubt,  and  irresistibly  dragging 
down  with  him  the  Christian  and  the  Moslem; 
or  was  he  yet  fated  to  outlast  them  both,  in  con- 
tinuous testimony  to  a  hand  molding  incom- 
prehensibly the  life  of  humanity?  Would  Israel 
develop  into  the  sacred  phalanx,  the  nobler 
brotherhood  that  Raphael  Leon  had  dreamed  of, 
or  would  the  race  that  had  first  proclaimed — 
through  Moses  for  the  ancient  world,  through 
Spinoza  for  the  modern — 

'  One  God,  one  Law,  one  Element/ 

become  in  the  larger,  wilder  dream  of  the  Rus- 
sian idealist,  the  main  factor  in 

'  One  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  Creation  moves  ? ' 

"  The  roar  dwindled  to  a  solemn  silence,  as 


180  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

though  in  answer  to  her  questionings.  Then  the 
ram's  horn  shrilled — a  stern,  long  drawn-out 
note,  that  rose  at  last  into  a  mighty  peal  of 
sacred  jubilation.  The  atonement  was  com- 
plete." 

By  this  work  then  Zangwill  has  won  for  him- 
self a  place  in  the  foremost  rank  of  the  Ghetto 
novelists,  yes,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  the  first 
place;  he  is  an  artist  of  consummate  ability  and 
as  an  artist  has  drawn  a  picture  that  shall  live 
long  after  the  time  when  the  peculiar  life  that 
he  has  pictured  shall  have  disappeared  altogether 
from  the  earth.  That  life  was  the  outcome  of 
persecution ;  with  the  advance  of  freedom  the 
complexion  of  Jewish  life  changes;  in  the  free 
countries  of  the  world  the  Jew  is  no  longer 
a  being  apart  politically ;  in  the  habits  of  life 
he  is  like  his  neighbors  of  other  faiths;  re- 
ligiously alone  is  he  different ;  it  is  a  far  cry  from 
the  Ghetto  Jew  of  Zangwill's  pages  to  the  Jew 
of  America's  reform  congregations ;  our  novelist 
has  performed  a  notable  service  for  the  history 
of  Jewish  culture  by  casting  in  a  fixed  form  this 
disappearing  life  and  by  interpreting  in  so  sym- 
pathetic a  spirit  its  many-sidedness.  But  this 
was  only  the  beginning  of  endeavor  in  this  field 
of  literary  effort.  Besides  this  longer  work  our 
author  has  from  time  to  time  given  to  the  world 
short  stories  and  sketches  of  that  same  life,  to  a 
brief  consideration  of  some  of  which  I  now 
turn. 


IX.      "  CHILDREN   OF   THE    GHETTO."  181 

The  year  following  the  appearance  of  the 
"  Children  of  the  Ghetto  "  witnessed  the  publica- 
tion of  a  little  volume  containing  four  short 
stories  entitled  "  Ghetto  Tragedies."  These  are, 
indeed,  remarkable  specimens  of  the  story- 
teller's art.  The  first  two,  "  Satan.  Mekatrig" 
and  "  The  Diary  of  a  Meshumad,"  are  psycho- 
logical studies  of  a  high  order,  the  former  being 
a  presentation  of  the  making  of  an  unbeliever 
through  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  doubt  and 
mocking  skepticism  and  the  final  conquest  of 
this  spirit  by  the  persisting  influences  of  early 
training  and  inherited  faith,  and  the  latter  set- 
ting forth  the  whole  gamut  of  emotions  through 
which  an  apostate  from  Judaism  passes  owing  to 
the  subtle  influences  of  memory  and  re- awakened 
attachment  to  the  faith  of  his  fathers  that  come 
upon  him  towards  the  end  of  his  life.  In  its 
way  this  story  is  as  strong  as  anything  in  the 
language.  The  situations  are  tragic.  The  ac- 
tion moves  with  all  the  rapidity  of  a  drama  of 
avenging  fate.  The  horror  of  the  situation  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  apostate's  son  who  has  been 
reared  in  the  orthodox  Greek  Church,  and  has, 
of  course,  no  knowledge  of  his  father's  Jewish 
origin,  is  a  bigoted  Greek  Catholic  and  becomes 
the  editor  of  the  most  virulent  anti-Semitic  news- 
paper in  Russia  ;  it  is  the  son's  articles  that  in- 
cite the  Russian  mobs  to  violence  and  to  attacks 
on  the  Jewish  quarters,  and  the  poignant  agony 
through  which  the  father  who  has  returned 


182  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

secretly  to  his  people  passes,  is  portrayed  in  burn- 
ing touches  that  lay  bare  the  innermost  secrets 
of  a  tortured  soul.  In  this  story,  too,  Zangwill 
displays  his  great  power  of  objective  presenta- 
tion ;  the  arguments  of  the  enemies  of  the  Jews 
are  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  Paul,  the  anti- 
Semitic  son,  and  the  defense  of  the  persecuted 
people  is  uttered  by  the  apostate  who  pretends, 
however,  to  take  this  position  merely  for  argu- 
ment's sake,  as  he  does  not  dare  reveal  the  truth 
to  his  son. 

Not  all  apostates  are  like  this,  however,  and 
to  complete  the  picture,  the  author  introduces 
the  figure  of  another  Jew  by  birth,  the  physician, 
Nicholas  Alexandrovitch,  who  has  no  such 
qualms  of  conscience  and  mocks  at  the  re- 
awakened memories  and  longings  of  the  central 
character  of  the  story.  The  meshumad  is  not  to 
be  diverted,  however.  His  heart  longs  for  his 
people  and  his  faith,  "  the  simple,  sublime  faith 
of  my  people."  It  draws  him  like  a  magnet. 
In  direct,  powerful  strokes  the  diary  hurries  us 
on  to  the  climax,  the  murderous  attack  on  the 
Jewish  quarter  of  Odessa  where  the  meshumad 
has  taken  refuge.  The  story  closes  with  an  ac- 
count of  the  oncoming  of  the  mob,  "Great 
God!  They  have  knives  and  guns  and  their 
leader  is  flourishing  a  newspaper  and  shouting 
out  something  from  it.  There  are  soldiers 
among  them  and  sailors,  native  and  foreign,  and 
mad  mushiks.  Where  are  the  police  ?  .  .  . 


IX.      "  CHILDREN   OF  THE   GHETTO."  183 

The  mob  is  passing  under  my  window.  God 
pity  me,  it  is  Paul's  words  they  are  shouting.  They 
have  passed.  No  one  thinks  of  me.  Thank 
God,  I  am  safe.  I  am  safe  from  these  demons. 
What  a  narrow  escape !  Ah,  God,  they  have  cap- 
tured Rabbi  Isaac  and  are  dragging  him  along 
by  his  white  beard  towards  the  barracks.  My 
place  is  by  his  side.  I  will  rouse  my  brethren. 
We  will  turn  on  these  dogs  and  rend  them. 
Proshchai,  my  beloved  diary,  farewell.  I  go  to 
proclaim  the  Unity." 

The  closing  story  of  this  collection,  "  The  Sab- 
bath Breaker,"  consisting  of  but  a  few  pages,  is 
a  veritable  gem  ;  it  is  the  very  perfection  of  the 
art  of  story  writing ;  it  is  a  classic,  worthy  of  a 
place  among  the  highest  products  of  the  fic- 
tionist's  skill.  The  tale  of  a  mother's  devotion 
has  never  been  more  beautifully  told.  In  the 
apt  figure  of  the  Biblical  sage,  it  may,  indeed, 
be  spoken  of  as  "  an  apple  of  gold  in  a  setting  of 
silver." 

In  the  "Dreamers  of  the  Ghetto,"  Zangwill 
has  reached  the  high-water  mark  of  his  art. 
Although  not  fiction  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term,  yet  the  most  of  these  sketches  are  cast  in 
the  fictional  form,  and  hence,  even  if  based  on 
historical  happenings,  they  may  be  included 
properly  in  the  estimation  of  our  author  as  an 
imaginative  delineator  of  Jewish  themes.  No- 
where does  Bang-will's  genius  shine  more  bril- 
liantly than  here.  Taking  striking  and  roman- 


184  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

tic  incidents  from  Jewish  history  as  his  subjects, 
he  sets  forth  through  this  medium  the  wondrous 
story  of  Jewish  effort,  fault  and  aspiration ;  as 
in  the  tales  we  have  already  considered,  we  find 
him  here  also  in  the  guise  of  the  truth-seeker; 
traits  admirable  and  qualities  reprehensible  he 
portrays  with  unprejudiced  candor;  his  is  the 
objective  standpoint,  blinded  neither  by  preju- 
dice to  merit  nor  by  partisanship  to  fault;  in  a 
word,  he  is  the  artist  above  all  things,  and  the 
artist,  to  be  worthy  of  his  calling,  must  be  able 
to  view  his  subject  from  every  side  and  produce 
the  composite  picture  that  shall  contain  in  solu- 
tion all  the  elements;  as  he  himself  says:  "This 
book  was  written  for  the  world,  for  Christian 
and  Jew  alike.  The  artist,  as  artist,  is  of  all 
parties  and  none ;  he  is  touched  by  the  beauty, 
the  pathos,  the  tragedy,  the  wonder  of  all  crea- 
tion. He  must  stand  alone;  for  him  union  is 
weakness.  But  because  he  is  of  no  sect,  his 
vision  may  be  of  help  to  all  sects,  his  search  for 
truth  from  his  lonely  watch-tower  may  haply 
reveal  what  both  partisan  and  antagonist  may 
miss." 

Although  the  book  is  composed  of  many 
sketches,  detailing  incidents  extending  over  cen- 
turies of  striving  from  the  sixteenth  to  the  nine- 
teenth and  laid  in  widely  separated  localities, 
Venice  and  Rome,  Amsterdam  and  Smyrna, 
Galicia  and  Germany,  London  and  Jerusalem, 
yet  is  the  one  purpose  running  through  the 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OP  THE  GHETTO."         185 

book  made  plain  from  the  choice  of  subjects, 
this  purpose  being  the  search  for  a  reconciling 
element  between  the  conflicting  tendencies  in 
the  human  spirit,  that  discord  between  the  stern 
demands  of  righteousness  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  passionate  longing  for  beauty  on  the  other, 
or,  to  use  a  phrase  now  much  in  vogue,  the 
discord  of  Hebraism  and  Hellenism.  These 
conflicts  of  soul  are  presented  in  varying  guises, 
of  which  I  may  mention  the  opening  sketch, 
"The  Child  of  the  Ghetto,"  and  the  closing 
tale,  "  Chad  Gadya,"  a  modernized  version  of 
Ecclesiastes,  which,  having  as  its  central  charac- 
ter the  child  of  the  opening  tale,  now  grown 
into  a  world-weary  youth,  gives  a  unity  to  the 
book;  "Joseph  the  Dreamer,"  poor  victim 
caught  between  the  upper  millstone  of  his  own 
blindness  to  the  inner  significance  of  his  inher- 
ited faith  and  the  nether  millstone  of  man's  in- 
tolerance and  therefore  crushed  to  death ;  "  Uriel 
Acosta,"  representing  another  phase  of  the  con- 
flict; "The  Maker  of  Lenses,"  luminous  study 
of  Spinoza;  "Maimon  the  Fool  and  Nathan  the 
Wise,"  types  of  differing  tendencies  in  eighteenth 
century  Judaism;  the  striking  essay  on  Heine, 
"  From  the  Mattress  Grave,"  a  tour  deforce  quite 
as  unique  and  ingenuous  as  anything  in  the  lan- 
guage; "The  Master  of  the  Name,"  unusual 
conglomerate  of  superstition  and  aspiration ; 
"  The  Conciliator  of  Christendom,"  pathetic 
picture  of  the  tragical  fate  of  the  world- 


186  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

improver;  and  notably  also  the  epilogue,  "A 
Modern  Scribe  in  Jerusalem,"  and  the  appendix, 
"The  Address  to  the  American  Jew,"  in  both 
of  which  the  author  appears  in  propria  persona ; 
conflicts  between  dreams  and  realities,  strange 
spirit  wrestlings,  tragedies  of  the  idealist,  great 
themes  sympathetically  treated;  our  author  here 
finds  himself  in  congenial  company,  for  he  too  is 
one  of  the  dreamers  of  the  Ghetto,  as  late  develop- 
ments in  his  life  have  proved.  In  the  sketch, 
"A  Modern  Scribe  in  Jerusalem,"  the  scribe 
suggests  a  solution  of  this  eternal  conflict  that 
has  been  so  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  inner 
contentions  within  Judaism  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  Since  this  sketch  is  presented  in  the 
form  of  epilogue  to  the  book,  we  are  justified  in 
considering  the  standpoint  of  the  scribe  the 
author's  own ;  the  words  to  which  I  refer  are  as 
follows:  "The  time  had  now  come  for  a  new 
religions  expression,  a  new  language  for  the  old 
everlasting  emotions,  in  terms  of  the  modern 
cosmos;  a  religion  that  should  contradict  no 
fact  and  check  no  inquiry :  BO  that  children 
should  grow  up  with  no  distracting  divorce 
from  their  parents  and  their  past,  with  no  break 
in  the  sanctities  of  childhood,  which  carry  on  to 
old  age  something  of  the  freshness  of  early  sen- 
sation, and  are  a  fount  of  tears  in  the  desert  of 
life.  The  ever-living,  darkly  laboring  Hebraic 
spirit  of  love  and  righteous  aspirations,  the 
Holy  Ghost  that  had  inspired  Judaism  and 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OF  THE  GHETTO."         187 

Christianity  and  moved  equally  in  Mohammed- 
ism  and  Protestantism,  must  now  quicken  and 
inform  the  new  learning,  which  still  lay  dead 
and  foreign  outside  humanity.  .  .  .  The 
animality  of  average  humanity  made  for  hope 
rather  than  despair,  when  one  remembered  from 
what  it  had  developed.  It  was  for  man  in  this 
laboring  cosmos  to  unite  himself  with  the  stream 
that  made  for  goodness  and  beauty.  A  song 
came  to  him  of  the  true  God,  whose  name  is 
one  with  Past,  Present  and  Future." 

As  to  the  question  whether  Zangwill  gives  a 
true  interpretation  of  the  interesting  episodes 
from  Jewish  history  that  he  depicts,  I  believe 
there  can  be  but  one  answer.  Although  he 
takes  some  liberties,  notably  in  the  Spinoza 
sketch  as  he  himself  says  in  his  preface,  yet 
with  the  sure  touch  of  genius,  he  has  grasped 
the  salient  points  and  set  them  forth  clearly, 
sanely,  objectively.  He  is  as  a  usual  thing  so 
exact  in  his  historical  facts  and  references  that 
it  is  strange  that  he  makes  the  mistake  of  speak- 
ing of  the  author  of  the  Shulchan  Arukh  as  Ben- 
jamin instead  of  Joseph  Caro  in  his  tale  about 
The  Turkish  Messiah.  The  appendix  to  the 
book,  entitled  "  To  the  American  Jew,"  being 
fact  and  not  fiction,  is  in  many  ways  the  most 
interesting  chapter  since  it  brings  the  problem 
down  to  our  own  day  and  gives  the  author's 
own  views  on  moot  points  in  modern  Jewish 
life.  In  his  own  brilliant  way  he  sums  up  in  an 


188  THE   JEW  IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

epigram  the  alternatives  of  Jewish  aspiration 
represented  on  the  one  hand  by  the  Zionistic 
movement  and  on  the  other  by  the  reform  move- 
ment when  he  says  "  either  a  common  country 
or  a  common  idea."  He  does  not  permit  his 
own  sympathies  with  Zionism  to  obscure  his 
vision;  he  presents  both  sides  fairly  and  with- 
out prejudice,  and  here  again  he  shows  himself 
the  true  artist.  He  states  the  conflict,  he  pre- 
sents the  problem ;  the  future  will  have  to  give 
the  answer.  We  who  believe  that  the  mission 
of  Judaism  lies  in  the  universal  spiritual  ideal 
of  the  prophets  and  not  in  a  resurrected  Jewish 
state,  being  thus  opposed  unalterably  to  the 
political  Zionists  with  whom  our  author  has 
openly  allied  himself  recently,  cannot,  despite 
the  differences  of  thought  that  here  divide  us, 
but  be  appreciative  of  the  lucid  presentation  of 
the  vexed  Jewish  question  that  is  given  us  here 
by  our  foremost  litterateur. 

A  number  of  other  Jewish  writers  of  more  or 
less  power  have  followed  in  Zangwill's  footsteps 
and  turned  to  the  Ghetto  for  material  for  stories. 
Many  there  are  who  regard  this  tendency  with 
dread,  notably  that  large  class  of  Jewish  chau- 
vinists to  whom  I  have  referred  already  and  who 
wish  every  mention  of  the  Ghetto  and  all  that 
it  implies  and  indicates  buried  far  out  of  sight. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  attitude  of 
mind  dates  back  to  the  time  of  the  appearance 
of  the  very  first  Ghetto  novel,  Heine's  wonderful 


IX.    "  CHILDREN    OF   THE   GHETTO."          189 

fragment,  "Der  Rabbi  von  Bacharach."  A 
writer  in  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  JudentJiums, 
in  the  year  1840,  attacked  this  sketch  of  Jewish 
life  viciously  and  adduced  the  same  arguments 
as  do  the  latter-day  critics  of  the  modern  Ghetto 
novelists;  his  cry  was  to  let  the  dead  past  bury 
its  dead ;  he  asked  of  what  benefit  is  it  to  dwell 
upon  a  phase  of  life  that  is  outgrown  ;  with  this 
attitude  the  unbiased  student  of  human  institu- 
tions can  have  but  little  sympathy;  for  good  or 
for  ill  the  centuries  of  life  in  the  Ghetto  have 
affected  the  development  of  Jewish  character, 
and  the  truthful  presentation  of  that  develop- 
ment is  certainly  legitimate  not  only  for  the  his- 
torian, but  for  the  fictionist.  The  only  question 
to  be  considered  is  whether  the  picture  drawn 
leaves  a  true  or  a  false  impression.  At  some 
length  I  have  attempted  to  answer  this  question 
as  far  as  the  leading  Ghetto  novelist  in  English 
literature  is  concerned,  and  I  turn  now  to  a  sim- 
ilar though  necessarily  briefer  consideration  of 
the  other  contemporary  writers  who  are  working 
that  same  vein.  First  in  order  of  time  and  for  that 
matter  of  ability  after  Zangwill  is  Samuel  Gordon, 
the  author  of  two  volumes  of  short  Ghetto  stories, 
"A  Handful  of  Exotics"  and  "The  Daughters 
of  Shem,"  and  a  lengthy  novel,  "  The  Sons  of  the 
Covenant."  Gordon  writes  with  a  sympathetic 
pen;  the  sad  side  of  the  Jewish  misdre  through 
the  centuries  appeals  to  him  most  strongly,  and 
in  his  two  volumes  of  short  stories  it  is  the  tear- 


190  THE  JEW   IN   ENGLISH   FICTION. 

compelling  features  of  the  life  of  the  Ghetto  that 
he  pictures  with  all  that  accuracy  which  inti- 
mate knowledge  alone  can  give;  although  his 
stories  for  the  most  part  are  to  be  characterized 
as  being  graceful  rather  than  powerful,  yet  in 
some  of  these  sketches  he  evinces  great  strength, 
and  rises  to  a  splendid  height  of  tragical  force, 
as  in  the  tales,  "The  Alien  Immigrant,"  "Out 
of  the  Land  of  Bondage,"  "Whose  Judgment 
is  Justice,"  "  To  the  Glory  of  God,"  and  "  The 
Ambush  of  Conscience."  He  is  well  equipped 
for  his  task ;  the  mention  throughout  of  the 
customs,  habits  and  superstitions  of  the  Ghetto 
betray  his  undoubted  familiarity  with  the  life  he 
portrays;  this  being  true,  it  is  strange  that  in 
the  English  rendition  of  the  traditional  marriage 
formula  in  the  story,  "  The  Ambush  of  Con- 
science," he  makes  so  strange  a  slip  as  to  include 
the  words,  "  as  a  wife,"  when  the  Hebrew  really 
is,  "Be  thou  consecrated  to  me  by  this  ring  ac- 
cording to  the  Law  of  Moses  and  Israel ;"  also, 
that,  influenced  by  the  conception  of  the  Phari- 
sees current  in  the  Christian  world,  he  should 
make  a  statement  to  this  effect,  "  they  were  chas- 
sidim  whose  prototypes  were  the  Pharisees  of 
old,  and  who  believe  in  a  religion  made  up  of 
long  caftans,  broad  waist  girdles  and  love  locks, 
and  generally  play  antics  with  the  grand  old 
faith  of  Sinai ;"  although  it  is  true  that  even  the 
Talmud  denounces  certain  classes  of  Pharisees, 
yet  is  the  usual  identification  of  Pharisaism  with 


IX.    "  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GHETTO."  191 

religious  hypocricy,  the  result  of  New  Testament 
teaching,  unjust  to  the  real  significance  of  the 
teachings  of  that  great  party  in  ancient  Israel, 
and  to  identify  that  degenerate  religious  move- 
ment, Chassidism,  with  Pharisaism,  is  to  go 
wide  of  the  mark.  I  cannot  but  consider  it  a 
mistake  both  on  the  part  of  the  writer  under 
present  consideration  and  of  Zangwill  to  trans- 
late into  English  typical  Ghetto  terms  which 
were  always  spoken  in  Hebrew  or  jargon ;  the 
forcefulness  of  expressions  like  am  haaretz,  aziz 
ponim  and  the  like  is  lost  altogether  in  their 
English  dress,  "  man  of  the  earth "  (which  by 
the  way  is  a  wrong  rendering),  "impudence 
face ; "  they  should  be  given  in  their  original 
form  and  explained  in  a  glossary;  the  same  is 
certainly  the  case  with  such  terms  as  Kaddish, 
Arba  Kanfoth,  Zeeno  ureenoh;  to  the  initiated 
they  are  perfectly  intelligible;  in  their  English 
version,  the  Sanctification,  Four  Corner  Gar- 
ments, The  Go  and  See  Book,  they  are  intelligi- 
ble neither  to  the  initiated  (except  by  an  effort) 
nor  to  the  uninitiated;  hence,  all  such  typical 
expressions  should  be  left  as  they  were  uttered 
by  the  people  in  the  Ghetto. 

Gordon  understands  the  Jewish  character  well, 
as  is  apparent  throughout  his  stories.  Let  me 
quote  but  a  few  expressions  which  indicate  this 
clearly.  How  well  he  sums  up  the  whole  story 
of  the  steadfastness  of  centuries  in  the  face  of 
persecution  when  he  makes  an  old  man  appeal  as 


192  THE   JEW   IN  ENGLISH   FICTION. 

follows  to  the  ruffians  who  wish  to  force  him  to 
eat  leavened  bread  in  the  Passover,  during  an  at- 
tack by  the  mob  on  the  Jewish  quarter,  "  Have 
mercy  on  me !  kill  me !  but  do  not  make  me 
transgress  the  commandment !"  and  how  keer> 
an  insight  into  the  habit  of  mind  of  the  Rus- 
sian Jew  he  shows  in  his  remark  about  "  the 
faculty  of  yielding  to  circumstances  which  is  at 
once  the  vice  and  the  virtue  of  the  co-religionists 
he  had  left  behind  in  the  Pale  of  settlement ;" 
the  attitude  of  resignation  of  the  pious  Jew 
under  the  visitation  of  dread  calamity  appears 
from  the  unmurmuring  acceptance  of  misfortune 
by  the  poor  stricken  mother  in  the  powerful 
tale,  "Whose  Judgment  is  Justice;"  a  young 
woman  has  lost  her  babe  and  cannot  be  com- 
forted; her  tears  flow  without  ceasing;  the  old 
grandmother  who  has  lost  all  her  children  under 
the  most  harrowing  circumstances  relates  the 
manner  of  their  taking  off,  and  as  the  young 
woman  hears  this  tale  of  supreme  woe,  her  own 
trouble  seems  trivial,  "  truly,  it  is  said,  that  a 
small  grief  melts  away  in  the  telling  of  a  greater ;" 
the  resignation  of  the  Jewess  finds  expression  in 
the  words, u  I  begrudge  thee  not  thy  tears !  but  lest 
thou  shouldst  arraign  Heaven  and  thereby  bring 
sin  upon  thy  head,  I  would  have  thee  remember 
that  whomsoever  God  loves  He  chastises.  And 
he  has  loved  me  very  much  ; "  the  great  respect 
for  learning  shown  by  Anshel  Markovitz,  the 
rich  shopkeeper  in  the  tale  "  The  Daughters  of 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OP  THE  GHETTO."         195 

Shem,"  and  his  desire  to  ally  himself  with  a 
learned  family  by  the  marriage  of  his  daughter 
Zillah  to  Enoch  Gontaller,  the  son  of  the  re- 
nowned Rabbi  Talmudist  and  himself  a  young 
man  of  brilliant  attainments,  reflect  truthfully 
the  sentiment  of  the  Jew  of  the  time  and  en- 
vironment described;  in  introducing  the  young 
man  to  his  daughter  he  says  simply,  "Zillah, 
this  is  Enoch  Gontaller.  When  you  were  yet 
in  your  cradle  his  father's  name  had  already 
traveled  to  the  four  corners  of  the  world.  It  is  a 
name  to  be  proud  of,  and  the  son  is  worthy  of 
his  father ;  need  I  say  more  ?  "  And  how  well 
the  author  has  grasped  the  high  aspirations  of 
Jewish  thought  is  apparent  from  passages  such 
as  that  containing  the  exhortation  of  the  teacher 
to  the  wayward  boy  Aaron  in  the  story  "  The 
Conquest  of  Aaron  Pittrick,"  "Aaron,  have  you 
forgotten  that  God  has  made  us  a  nation  of 
priests?  He  has  driven  us  out  of  our  land  so 
that  we  might  make  the  whole  world  His  altar 
— a  sanctuary  where  we  are  to  teach  ourselves 
and  our  brothers  to  offer  sacrifice.  And  what 
are  we  to  offer  up  ?  Not  our  love,  our  abnegation, 
our  truth,  these  we  are  to  keep  for  ourselves;  but 
we  are  to  render  up  our  hatreds,  our  evil 
passions,  our  falsehoods,  because  God  is  a  great 
Magician  and  can  make  metal  out  of  dross  and 
ornaments  out  of  abominations.  And  that  is 
what  we  learn  from  our  high  traditions,  from 
the  examples  of  our  great  men,  and  that  is  why 


194  THE    JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

I  would  have  you  study  their  words  night  and 
day,  till  you  have  caught  the  echo  of  their  loud- 
uttered  testimony.  A  nation  of  priests  are  we 
to  be,  and  there  shall  be  no  falsehood  and 
hatred  amongst  us." 

The  two  tales,  "Toward  the  Sunrise "  and 
"  On  the  Road  to  Zion,"  present  the  two  aspects 
of  the  Zionist  movement,  the  former  the  en- 
thusiasm of  its  devoted  adherents,  the  latter  its 
impracticability ;  the  closing  tale  in  the  volume 
"The  Daughters  of  Shem,"  entitled  "The 
Leader,"  is  an  excellent  little  study  of  various 
tendencies  among  modern  Jews,  the  laxity  of 
the  rich  race  Jew  and  the  compelling  power  of 
the  Jewish  heritage. 

Gordon's  next  venture  in  this  field  was  his 
novel  "The  Sons  of  the  Covenant;  a  Tale  of 
London  Jewry."  This  story  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  two  brothers,  Philip  and  Leuw 
Lipcott,  has  all  the  better  characteristics  of  the 
shorter  tales  already  considered;  that  same  note 
of  intelligent  sympathy  is  struck  here  and  the 
same  evidence  given  of  full  familiarity  with  the 
life  and  experiences  detailed;  but  our  author 
has  grown  in  the  powor  of  presentation  and  has 
produced  a  charming  tale  whose  prevailing  note 
is  the  devotion  of  brother  and  friend ;  the  better 
side  of  human  nature  is  kept  ever  to  the  fore; 
the  author  sees  his  fellow-men  through  kindly 
glasses.  The  purpose  of  the  novel,  in  as  far  a>s 
it  has  a  purpose  beyond  the  development  of 


IX.   "  CHILDREN   OF  THE   3HETTO." 

the  characters  and  the  love-story,  is  the  set- 
ting forth  of  Philip's  scheme  for  the  uplifting 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ghetto  out  of  thek' 
misery  and  degradation  to  a  higher  plane ;  that 
an  institute  planned  along  the  Maes  suggested 
will  do  much  toward  making  the  lives  of  such 
as  may  be  brought  within  the  radius  of  its  in- 
fluence fuller,  better  and  fairer,  and  will  in  great 
part  solve  the  perplexing  problems  arising  from 
the  poverty  and  the  congestion  of  the  Ghetto, 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  for  the  Toynbee  Halls 
and  the  Hull  Houses,  foundations  in  England 
and  America  of  similar  tendencies  to  the  imagi- 
nary institute  of  our  tale  have  done  untold 
good ;  whether  the  suggestion  in  Mr.  Gordon's 
novel  will  find  realization  as  did  Walter  Besant's 
similar  scheme  in  "All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of 
Men"  remains  to  be  seen;  at  any  rate  he  has 
spoken  a  noble  word  and  spoken  it  well.  The 
particularly  touching  portion  of  the  book  is  the 
relation  between  Leuw  and  Old  Christopher, 
the  Jewish  youth  and  the  Christian  old  man  .-, 
there  is  a  kinship  of  human  nature  that  draws 
true  hearts  together  despite  the  differences  of 
sect,  race  and  age. 

As  Zangwill  and  Gordon  find  their  subject- 
matter  in  the  London  Ghetto,  so  Abraham  Ca- 
han  exploits  the  New  York  Ghetto  for  material 
for  his  stories  of  which  he  has  published  two 
volumes,  "  Yeki  "  and  "  The  Imported  Bride- 
groom and  Other  Stories, "  It  is  a  very  unlovely 


196  THE   JEW  IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

picture  that  he  paints  in  the  former  volume; 
sordidness,  squalor,  wretchedness,  permeate  the 
pages ;  human  nature  at  its  worst  and  meanest 
is  laid  bare;  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Cahan  pos- 
sesses a  certain  strength,  and  if  his  object  was  to 
present  the  life  wherewith  he  deals  in  all  its 
ugliness  and  unsavoriness,  he  has  succeeded ; 
none  of  the  romance  of  the  Ghetto  here  that 
breathes  in  ZangwilPs  and  Gordons  pages;  if 
there  was  any  beauty  at  all  in  the  old  life  of  the 
Jews  within  the  Ghetto  walls,  there  is  certainly 
none  in  this  latest  of  the  Ghettos  of  the  world, 
the  congested,  swarming,  filthy  district  in  the 
East  Side  of  the  American  metropolis;  the  trans- 
planted Russian  Jew  as  he  appears  in  these 
pages  has  assumed  all  the  objectionable  traits  of 
the  lower  element  of  the  American  population 
in  whose  midst  he  dwells;  but  yet  in  spite  of 
the  horror  which  cannot  but  fill  one  at  the  life 
here  portrayed,  a  feeling  of  pity  comes  over  the 
reader  for  these  wretched  creatures  who,  victims 
of  tyranny  and  persecution  in  their  old  home, 
have  found  in  their  new  home  beyond  the  seas 
but  want  and  misery.  Let  him  who  prates  of 
the  wealth  of  the  Jew  spend  but  a  day  among 
the  denizens  of  this  wretched  district  and  he  will 
learn  to  his  amazement  that  there  are  tens  of 
thousands  of  this  people  living  in  a  state  of 
poverty  and  misery  the  like  of  which  not  the 
wildest  flights  of  fancy  have  pictured.  For  one 
Jewish  Dives  there  are  an  hundred  Lazarus ;  sta- 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OF  THE  GHETTO."       197 

tistics   prove   the   Jews   to   be   the    poorest   com- 
munity in  the  world. 

It  was  inevitable  that  the   New   York   Ghetto 
would    furnish    some    writer   or   writers    subjects 
for  tales.     The  local  color  that   the  modern  au- 
thor is  always  in  search  of  is  too  pronounced  to 
have    escaped    the    seeker.     It  is   a   peculiar  life 
and   comes   well  within  the  province   of  the   fic- 
tionist.     If  the  question  be  asked  cui    bono?  the 
only  answer  that  can  be  returned  is  that  into  the 
true  view  of  the  story-teller's  function  this  ques- 
tion does  not  enter ;  the  fictionist  is  not  a  moral- 
ist;  the    only  consideration  is   whether   his    por- 
trayal  is    faithful  to  the   life;    Cahan   is  au  fait 
with    his    subject;    he    knows    the    people    with 
whom  he  is  concerned.     No  fair  products  can  be 
expected  to  grow  out  of  a  plague-infected  spot, 
and  the   New   York   Ghetto  is   nothing   short   of 
this;    the   struggle  for  mere  existence  is  a  fierce 
battle     with    outrageous     fortune ;    little    wonder 
that   many  of  the    swarming    thousands   huddled 
in   the    noisome    tenements    become    almost    de- 
humanized;   little    wonder    that    the    student    of 
sociology   and   the  kindly   philanthropist   stagger 
at  the   problem   here   presented ;    the    Ghetto    of 
New  York  and  in  a  lesser  degree  the  Ghettos  of 
the   other    large    American   cities    are    the    sore 
spots  in  American   Jewish  life;   the   picture   that 
Cahan  has  given  of  the  New  York  Ghetto  is  not 
overdrawn ;    "  it   (the   New  York    Ghetto)  is  one 
of  the  most  densely  populated  spots  on  the  face 


198  THE  JEW  IN  ENGLISH  FICTION. 

of  the  earth — a  seething  human  sea  fed  by 
streams,  streamlets  and  rills  of  immigration 
flowing  from  all  the  Yiddish -speaking  centers  of 
Europe.  Hardly  a  block  but  shelters  Jews  from 
every  nook  and  corner  of  Russia,  Poland,  Gal- 
icia,  Hungary,  Roumania;  Lithuanian  Jews, 
Yolhynian  Jews,  south  Russian  Jews,  Bessa- 
rabian  Jews ;  Jews  crowded  out  of  the  pale  of 
Jewish  settlement;  Russified  Jews  expelled 
from  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg,  Kieff  or  Saratoff; 
Jewish  runaways  from  justice ;  Jewish  refugees 
from  crying  political  and  economical  injustice; 
people  torn  from  a  hard-gained  foothold  in  life 
and  from  deep-rooted  attachments  by  the  caprice 
of  intolerance  or  the  wiles  of  demagoguery,  in- 
nocent scapegoats  of  a  guilty  government  for  its 
outraged  populace  to  misspend  its  blind  fury 
upon,  students  shut  out  of  the  Russian  universi- 
ties and  come  to  these  shores  in  quest  of  learn- 
ing, artisans,  merchants,  teachers,  rabbis,  artists, 
beggars — all  come  in  search  of  fortune.  Nor  is 
there  a  tenement  house  but  harbors  in  its  bosom 
specimens  of  all  the  whimsical  metamorphoses 
wrought  upon  the  children  of  Israel  of  the 
great  exodus  by  the  vicissitudes  of  life  in 
this  their  promised  land  of  to-day.  You 
find  there  Jews  born  to  plenty  whom  the 
new  conditions  have  delivered  up  to  the  clutches 
of  penury ;  Jews  reared  in  the  straits  of  need 
who  have  here  risen  to  prosperity;  good 
people  morally  degraded  in  the  struggle  for  sue- 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OE;TEE  GHETTO."         199 

cess  amid  an  unwonted  environment;  moral 
outcasts  lifted  from  the  mire,  purified  and  im- 
bued with  self-respect ;  educated  men  and  wo- 
men with  their  intellectual  polish  tarnished  in 
the  inclement  weather  of  adversity ;  ignorant  sons 
of  toil  grown  enlightened — in  fine,  people  with  all 
sorts  of  antecedents,  tastes,  habits,  inclinations, 
and  speaking  all  sorts  of  sub-dialects  of  the 
same  jargon,  thrown  pell-mell  into  one  social 
caldron — a  human  hodge-podge  with  its  com- 
ponent parts  changed  but  not  yet  formed  into 
one  homogeneous  whole." 

As  for  the  tale  of  "  Yekl "  itself,  there  is  but 
little  in  commendation  that  can  be  said  of  it; 
"  Yekl,"  or  "  Jake,"  according  to  the  American- 
ized version  of  his  original  name,  is  an  uncouth 
young  emigrant  versed  in  the  lingo  of  the  prize- 
fight ring,  a  worshiper  at  the  shrine  of  the 
champion  bruiser  John  L.  Sullivan,  a  frequenter 
of  dance  halls,  a  sort  of  Ghetto  "  tough ; "  the 
other  characters  of  the  book  are  not  much  more 
delectable ;  there  are  but  few  bright  spots  in  the 
picture;  Oahan,  both  in  this  longer  story  and  in  a 
number  of  short  tales  that  have  appeared  in 
magazines  now  and  then,  has  made  it  a  point  to 
show  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ghetto  in  a  repulsive 
guise ;  his  sketches  are  relieved  by  scarcely  a 
glimpse  of  nobler  characteristics;  he  is  the  realist 
among  writers  of  Ghetto  tales,  using  this  term 
in  its  popularly  accepted  meaning  as  designating 
that  school  of  writers  that  delve  into  the  purlieus 


200  THE    JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

of  human  life   and   spread  their  literary   harpy- 
feast  before  the  eyes  of  the  world. 

True  as  this  statement  is  as  applied  to  some 
stories  of  Cahan  yet  must  it  be  modified  in  refer- 
ence to  the  bound  volume  of  tales  from  the  pen 
of  our  author,  "  The  Imported  Bridegroom  and 
Other  Stories;"  although  dealing  with  the  same 
subject  and  delineating  the  same  life,  there  is 
here  a  broader  outlook,  a  more  comprehensive 
grasp,  a  finer  touch ;  the  two  stories,  "A  Sweat 
Shop  Komance"  and  "A  Ghetto  Wedding/' 
though  laid  in  sordid  surroundings  and  showing 
the  wretchedness  of  the  Ghetto  life  with  all  its 
cramped  poverty,  yet  are  invested  with  the 
transforming  artistic  spirit  that  one  misses  in 
the  "realistic"  tales  just  referred  to;  the  story 
"  Circumstances "  evinces  real  power ;  it  brings 
out  the  tragedy  of  the  life  of  the  young  Russian 
Jew  of  high  aspiration  and  advanced  education 
driven  from  his  home  and  forced  to  engage  in 
the  most  distasteful  occupations  in  the  American 
Ghetto  to  gain  a  mere  livelihood;  the  pitiful 
struggle  with  grinding  poverty,  the  gradual  re- 
linquishment  of  the  high  ideals,  the  sacrifice  of 
a  fine  mind  to  the  Moloch  of  toil  for  physical 
sustenance,  the  overwhelming  sadness  of  it  all 
are  told  graphically;  full  is  the  New  York 
Ghetto  of  these  individual  tragedies ;  the  land  of 
promise  has  become  in  but  too  many  cases  the 
land  of  disappointment  and  despair.  The  longer 
story  that  gives  the  name  to  the  volume  is  an  excel- 


IX. 

lent  portrayal  of  the  effect  of  the  culture  and 
learning  of  the  larger  world  upon  the  Jew  of 
Talmudical  training  and  keen  dialectical  reason- 
ing power ;  to  him  who  can  peer  beneath  the 
surface  there  is  disclosed  here  the  secret  of  many 
a  Jew's  power  to  rise  above  adverse  circum- 
stances and  make  his  way  in  the  world.  In  the 
tales  of  this  volume  our  author  has  made  a  de- 
cided advance;  his  pictures  are  more  rounded; 
he  sets  forth  well  the  effect  of  the  American  en- 
vironment upon  the  immigrants,  and  produces 
some  genre  pictures  which  betray  true  artistic 
capabilities. 

The  latest  aspirant  for]  recognition  in  this 
field  is  an  American  Jewess,  Martha  Wolfen- 
stein ;  her  book,  "  Idylls  of  the  Gass,"  published 
recently,  is  a  collection  of  short  tales,  whose 
hero  is  the  little  "wonder  child,"  Shimmele;  his 
experiences  in  the  home  and  under  the  tutelary 
protection  of  the  shrewd  and  kindly  old  grand- 
mother, Mary  am,  are  set  forth  with  loving 
warmth  and  in  a  delightful  manner.  Miss 
Wolfenstein  has  caught  the  spirit  of  the  finer 
side  of  the  Ghetto  life  remarkably  well;  she 
draws  the  pictures  with  sympathetic  pencil ;  she 
loves  the  life  passed  there ;  but  she  sees  only  its 
poetry  and  romance;  she  closes  her  eyes  to  its 
wretchedness  and  misery ;  the  kindly  interest, 
the  charitable  concern,  the  religiosity,  the  do- 
mestic constancy,  the  filial  devotion,  the  hospi- 
tality to  the  stranger,  the  respect  for  learning, 


202  THE    JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION, 

the  uncomplaining  piety,  the  homely  wisdom,  the 
keen  mother-wit,  all  these  beautiful  traits  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Ghetto  are  delineated  with 
skillful  strokes ;  the  femininity  of  the  author, 
the  gentle-hearted  Jewish  woman,  is  apparent 
on  every  page  ;  even  in  the  descriptions  of  the 
horrors  of  persecution  it  is  this  gentler  note 
that  sounds.  All  the  restrictions  of  the  Ghetto, 
the  narrowness  of  view,  the  exclusion  from  the 
larger  life,  are  kept  in  the  background;  after  all, 
this  is  the  danger  of  the  Jewish  romanticism 
that  the  writers  of  the  Ghetto  stories  do  so  much 
to  arouse  and  foster;  in  spite  of  all  the  poetic 
beauty  that  the  Ghetto  novelists  weave  into  the 
life  they  portray,  we  may  not  forget  the  other 
side;  modern  Jewish  life  may  seem  to  lack 
much  of  the  romance  of  the  Ghetto,  but  for  all 
that  its  freedom  outweighs  beyond  calculation 
all  the  beauty  that  the  romancer  reads  into  the 
Ghettoism  over  which  he  casts  fancy's  glamour ; 
let  the  reader  beware  lest  under  the  witchery  of 
his  influence  we  lose  the  true  perspective ;  the 
Ghetto  is  in  great  part  a  thing  of  the  past,  and 
happily  so ;  whether  it  be  a  street,  a  quarter,  or 
a  section,  it  is  the  synonym  for  restricted  devel- 
opment, and  poetize  it  as  much  as  one  will,  it 
remains  the  Ghetto  after  all.  Miss  Wolfenstein 
loves  her  "gass;"  the  heart  often  clings  to  a 
cherished  possession  though  the  reason  declares 
against  it;  Shimmele  is  a  splendid  creation,  and 
JMaryam  a  truly  wise  woman,  like  unto  whom 


ix.  "CHILDREN  OF  THE  GHETTO."       203 

there  were  many,  mothers  in  Israel  indeed, 
whose  keen  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
homely  wisdom  and  heart  of  gold  brightened 
all  of  life.  The  book  contains  many  deft 
touches ;  thus,  for  example,  in  speaking  of  the 
piety  and  trustful  faith  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Ghetto,  the  author  says  finely :  "  They  were  for 
the  most  part  poor  and  struggling,  bent  with 
care  and  labor,  stamped  with  the  indellible  mark 
of  helpless,  patient  suffering ;  yet  they  left  their 
beds  at  dead  of  night  and  hurried  to  the  syna- 
gogue to  weep  penitently  over  their  sins  and 
thank  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  for  His  boundless 
mercies."  The  dogged  persistence  of  the  Jew  is 
brought  out  well  in  the  scene  between  Shimmele 
and  his  tormentors,  Christian  boys  of  his  own 
age ;  with  all  the  refinement  of  cruelty  that  fre- 
quently marks  boys,  his  chief  tormentor  has 
forced  the  little  lad  to  do  his  bidding  in  a  num- 
ber of  instances,  and  finally  he  has  the  wondrous 
inspiration  to  make  the  Jew  boy  cross  himself; 
" '  Cross  thyself!  make  the  cross,  Jew ! '  they 
shouted  in  chorus.  But  the  artist  had  reckoned 
only  with  Shimmele  and  not  with  centuries  of 
his  ancestors.  These  now  came  strangely  into 
play.  Shimmele's  jaw  had  become  rigid  as  iron. 
The  blood  was  back  in  his  face  and  his  eyes  blazed 
fearlessly  into  his  tormentors',  glowing  eloquently 
with  deep  and  utter  contempt.  '  Cross  thyself! ' 
he  roared  again  and  again,  pummeling  Shim- 
mele the  while  in  his  rage,  but  the  blood  of 


204  THE    JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

Shimmele's  martyred  ancestry  boiled  in  his 
veins,  and  had  they  then  and  there  hacked 
him  to  pieces  he  would  not  have  made  the 
sign  of  the  cross. "  One  of  the  best  features 
of  Jewish  life  was  the  spirit  of  helpfulness, 
notably  in  cases  of  need ;  charity  was  bred  in 
the  bone,  and  the  phrase  "  the  Jewish  heart ?' 
was  coined  to  express  this;  the  Ghetto  had  a 
number  of  institutions  for  the  relief  of  the  self- 
respecting  poor,  one  of  which  the  Burial  Society 
affords  our  author  the  occasion  for  a  little 
homily  which  is  well  worth  reproducing :  "  I 
would  that  our  modern  charity  organizations 
might  have  had  a  lesson  of  the  Burial  Society  in 
the  Gass,  I  would  that  our  tender-hearted  com- 
mittees who  line  up  the  poor  like  cattle  and 
brand  them  before  the  face  of  man — I  would 
that  they  might  have  studied  the  methods  of 
the  Burial  Society  in  the  Gass.  And  our  teach- 
ers, those  honored  makers  of  the  nation,  who 
cry  without  a  tremor,  'All  children  who  are  too 
poor  to  buy  books  please  rise ! ' — the  little  ones 
pale  and  tremble,  and  often  the  pain  draws  such 
bitter  tears — would  that  they  might  have  learnt 
the  tenderness  of  the  Burial  Society  in  the 
Gass." 

"When  a  death  occurs  there,  whether  in  the 
house  of  the  rich  or  the  poor,  the  society  sends 
two  locked  boxes  to  the  bereaved.  One  con- 
tains the  funds  of  the  society,  the  other  is 
empty.  The  fund  must  then  be  transferred 


IX.   u  CHILDREN   OF   THE    GHETTO."          205 

frcm  one  box  to  the  other,  and  in  the  process 
one  may  add  to  it  or  take  from  it  or  leave  it 
intact.  The  boxes  are  then  returned  locked, 
and  no  one  knows  or  can  know  who  has  made 
a  donation  or  who  has  a  charity  funeral." 

The  book  ends  appropriately  with  little  Shim- 
mele  intoning  the  morning  prayer  after  the 
night  of  carnage  and  murder  in  the  Ghetto; 
the  action  of  the  child  typifies  the  faith  of  the 
Jew  of  the  Ghetto;  despite  persecution,  despite 
wretchedness,  despite  the  world's  hatred  and 
contumely,  he  never  lost  hope  nor  ever  re- 
linquished his  trust  in  his  God,  and  like  the 
" wonder  child"  of  these  pages  he  prayed  day 
after  day,  in  sunshine  and  storm,  in  happiness 
and  gloom,  the  traditional  opening  words  of 
his  daily  morning  devotions,  "  The  Lord  of  the 
Universe — He  it  is  who  reigned  before  any  be- 
ing was  created,  He  is  one  and  there  is  none  be- 
side. The  Lord  is  my  living  Eedeemer,  my 
Rock  in  the  time  of  affliction.  Into  His  hands 
I  commit  my  spirit.  God  is  with  me,  I  shall 
not  fear." 

I  have  passed  in  review  many  imaginary  por- 
traits. The  fiction  whose  inspiration  is  the  life 
of  the  Ghetto  has  assumed  a  well-defined  place 
in  the  literary  life  of  the  period.  It  is  really 
historical  fiction,  for  even  such  Ghettos  as  still 
exist  are  remnants  of  the  past  lingering  in  the 
present.  The  fervent  hope  of  all  friends  of  hu- 
manity is  that  they  may  ere  long  vanish  from 


206  THE  JEW    IN    ENGLISH    FICTION. 

the  face  of  the  earth  everywhere,  and  thus  the 
sad  story  of  Jewish  repression  whereof  the 
Ghetto  has  been  the  symbol  may  be  ended.  As 
I  stated  in  the  opening  lines  of  this  chapter,  I 
believe  the  function  of  the  Ghetto  novelist  to  be 
legitimate,  but  that  which  is  to  be  regretted  is 
the  tendency  that  has  shown  itself  quite  recently 
on  the  part  of  some  of  the  representatives  of 
this  school,  to  exploit  the  Ghetto  for  bizarre 
themes  and  to  publish  stories  which  do  not  in 
any  way  reflect  the  life  of  the  Ghetto  as  such, 
but  seem  to  be  written  with  the  mere  purpose 
of  producing  a  sensational  story  and  giving  it  a 
Ghetto  label.  This  reprehensible  proceeding 
cannot  be  condemned  too  strongly.  Another 
point  must  also  be  touched  in  this  connection. 
The  Ghetto,  the  Jewish  misery  and  the  Ghetto 
novel  have  been  so  much  in  evidence  during  the 
past  ten  years  that  the  fact  that  they  are  not  all 
of  Jewish  life  and  literature  is  sometimes  likely 
to  be  forgotten.  They  represent  the  hand  of 
the  dead  past  still  resting  on  the  present,  but 
during  the  last  century  the  Jews  have  been 
making  brave  and  determined  efforts  to  shake 
off  this  hand.  And  who  will  say  that  they  have 
not  succeeded  in  the  lands  in  which  legislation 
has  removed  the  barbarities  of  the  centuries? 
The  Ghetto  is  only  an  incident  in  Jewish  history 
and  the  Ghetto  novel  only  a  small  branch  of 
Jewish  literary  activity. 

The  Jew  of  the  present  day  knows  that  he  is 


IX.    "CHILDKEN    OF   THE    GHETTO."          207 

bound  by  an  hundred  ties  to  the  past,  but  he  has 
outgrown  that  past;  with  freedom  has  come  the 
larger  outlook;  the  unquenchable  optimism,  the 
homely  virtues,  the  beautiful  faith  of  his  fathers 
of  the  Ghetto,  are  a  precious  undying  heritage, 
but  strange  customs  and  peculiarities  that  have 
outlived  their  meaning  and  usefulness  he  has 
sloughed.  In  the  Ghetto  novel  that  is  true  to 
the  life  he  sees  a  picrure  of  that  past  existence 
with  all  that  it  implies;  he  thanks  his  God 
that  the  light  of  freedom  is  shining  brightly  in 
many  lands,  and  he  prays  that  where  the  dark- 
ness' of  oppression  still  broods  this  light  may 
soon  penetrate ;  in  spite  of  many  untoward  ap- 
pearances that  seem  to  indicate  reaction,  he  will 
not  lose  hope  that  the  age  of  Ghettoism  is  re- 
ally past,  and  that  where  this  still  lingers  it  must 
give  way  to  the  increasing  purpose  that  runs 
through  the  ages,  for  the  high  hopes  of  the 
prophets  of  the  human  race  shall  not  be  disap- 
pointed, and  the  day  shall  dawn  when  hatred  and 
oppression  shall  be  no  more,  and  justice,  love 
and  peace  shall  rule  among  men. 


'  '  V  r  V '  j.'j  ; 


-'VI   \      T   -•> 


14 


RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHZCH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


booksare  subject  to  immediate  recaa 

SDec^2GR. 


1963 


REC'D  .' 


LD  21A-50m-3  '62 
(C7097s30)476B 


.General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


YB    IM 


/ 


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